Question: The people who demand social justice want to get an immediate answer. What can we tell them?

Answer: You can’t achieve social justice and fair distribution of resources that will satisfy everyone without first building society as a family.

We are all different, each one has his own needs, and each one deserves to receive his share that is different than the others. So, how is it possible to satisfy everyone?

It can only be done if we are connected by ties of love that provide fulfillment when I have a lack due to someone else having more. A person tears something from himself and gives to another.

For example, a father giving his favorite dish to his son is totally different from ordering another portion for his son. Sacrificing something is better than simply giving something. After all, this “piece of the pie” fills you with love, enjoyment on a completely different level, higher and more abstract.

So, equality and fair distribution can only be relative and consistent with real differences between people. In order to learn to live as in a family and negotiate as a family, we need to build the right mutual relationships among us, and that requires the integral education of society.

We need to explain integral education to people in every possible way, with the help of videos, songs, and dramas. We can show how a person understands his own bitter experience. For example, suppose he wants all the good, and in response he receives contempt. He gives everyone cottage cheese because people were protesting its cost, and the next day he sees lots of unused cottage cheese containers thrown in the dump.

Then, he gives everyone a thousand dollars. There are some who use the money to buy alcohol and drugs. For others, the one thousand dollars isn’t enough to make ends meet, and they come complaining to him. [Read more →]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean that the Reshimot (informational genes) are incorporated in the Masach (screen)?

Answer: After the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the Masach becomes the main part of the work. The Masach is my only concern. It is the place where I always feel myself. Everything other than the Masach are extra conditions meant to support the Masach and to determine its form, its character, and its accurate direction.

My concern is to focus only on the Masach. It doesn’t matter what desires I feel, what light there is, or what is going on in my life because the decision has been made that from now on, I constantly try to resemble the upper. The equivalence to the upper provides the Masach.

All other conditions, both external and internal, whatever they are, accumulate and concentrate into this one concept called Masach. I think only about how I can perform the optimal and maximal action of all possible actions in order to resemble the Creator at any state.

The state itself doesn’t concern me and doesn’t depend on me. Neither does what I feel inside. Nothing! It is only important to understand that I received this from Him. In this state that I was brought to, it is important to perform an action that will make me resemble the Creator; that’s all.

Whether it is in a state of smallness, a state of greatness, or in an intermediate state between the two, it makes no difference since it all comes from Him. I focus all my attention on the Masach.

The Reshimot that are incorporated in the Masach are the data I work with. This is the information about me, about the giver, about my previous state, and about the lower state, about everything.

The Reshimot are the records of all my impressions in the past and in the future. All the data is accumulated in the Masach. My work is to clarify them, to sort them out according to priority, and act according to them in order to resemble the giver.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: A person forgets a lot, banishing much to oblivion, leaving behind unfulfilled beginnings and uncorrected defects. How can we avoid oblivion on the spiritual path?

Answer: Now it is impossible. Only in the end will all of the separate events be collected and lead to the collective correction, called “Rav Paalim u-Mekabtziel”. After accumulating all of our vessels, they will simultaneously unite in a unified state, and then this action will be accomplished. It will sum up all of the generations of the many billions of people and will collect all of their affairs into one. This is when the time of the full correction will arrive, which will unite all of us into one desire, perfect, and filled with the Light of Infinity.

Until then, we are forbidden to perceive the past because we would not be able to endure all of the things we had experienced. We do have the fortitude needed for that, in other words the screen (Masach). Today we would not be able to justify the states we have  experienced.

That is why we tend to oblivion. We switch off from time to time. This periodic “blackout” is actually no more than switching between two moments, between the day yesterday and the day today, between the past and present lives, until finally they will be all gathered into one.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 1/17/12, “Course to Be A Man, Human Development”

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You shouldn’t torture yourself because of your qualities or the bad things that you did or do. After all, it is the Creator who “trips you up” and arranges all the different states for you. This is how He brings you to the recognition of evil and actually does all the work. And you, instead of revealing the truth, reprimand yourself for your actions.

Question: But if you don’t pay attention to these things, isn’t it like running away from the struggle?

Answer: It isn’t a struggle at all. You are like a donkey in front of which an obstacle has been placed: He doesn’t understand how it can be bypassed, and tries to break through it. There is no point in that.

We have to rise above all the actions and feelings, above all the imaginary calculations, and through the group, connect with the Creator. It is the only way to reach the right decision. All the rest is a game, the show of life. It costs us great pain and suffering, but this is our evolution: It is impossible to avoid the mistakes here before we discover the opportunity to rise. One day it will happen.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Let’s say that an adult steals something. The usual approach is moralizing and intimidation: “Thou shall not steal! It’s bad, you’ll get arrested.” How can we work with that in an integral system of upbringing?

Answer: We organize a trial. The only question is: Who is under trial?

We shouldn’t hide the fact that each of us has a hidden impulse to steal. Each of us has taken something, has stolen something somewhere, at some point. And even if someone denies that, it simply means that the person is lying to himself and to others, or possibly isn’t even noticing it, which happens often.

“From where do we get this quality? Is it useful or harmful? What does it actually mean, “stealing”? Is it mine or someone else’s? Maybe this isn’t someone else’s?” Initially it is necessary to discern all these primary states and positions based on an absolutely objective picture without emphasizing anyone or anything, abstractly: What are these categories of “stealing,” “honesty,” and so on?

After that we analyze a specific incident, also without relating to any particular person because this could happen to anyone. We require each of the participants to place himself in the shoes of the culprit, to feel it through, to defend himself, to accuse himself, and so on.

We all live through this incident together. These are the conditions that were set up for us, and that is why we need to learn from this example. We should even be grateful to our friend for this act, which we experience as if we committed it ourselves.

Since we are all integrally connected within one system, in one group, we should then ask ourselves: “How could we have brought our friend to such a state?” This means that society is to blame. A person is a reflection of the environment in which he lives. It turns out that quite possibly he isn’t at fault at all! The problem is in us! In other words, any such occasion could help us clarify a lot of problems, to review our values and relationships.

In the end we should come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as individual wrongdoing or individual good, kind acts: All of that is merely a consequence of the influence of the environment. Thus, everyone should be under trial.

If we come to that point, everyone would feel that this petty thief lives inside each of us, and so he manifests in some of us, perhaps in the most impressionable individual. Can you imagine what kind of a field opens up for clarifications and analyses?

However, we must exit this state with only one conclusion: Everyone is to blame! If it’s a group, a society, or a class in which everyone is interconnected and undergoing the process of integral unification, everyone is at fault. There is no such thing that some one person is better or worse: It is all of us who are either better or worse.

Grades have no place here. You cannot give individual grades in such a society because you’re grading the society itself and not an individual.

Question: Does that mean that after the discussion I have to return whatever I stole, or is it sufficient to just come to realization?

Answer: You personally do not need to do anything. This is decided by everyone. You need to clarify everything collectively, and if it’s necessary to pay for the stolen items, then everyone pays together. If we come to a conclusion that everyone is to blame for this action, that means that everyone is responsible for it.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: When a grownup enters a system of upbringing, the first thing that he or she is concerned with are ethical questions: What’s right and what’s wrong? At the same time we know that ethics blocks the development of a person.

Answer: We are categorically against ethics. The problem is that ethics assumes an enormous quantity of various conditions that a person has to memorize and absorb, and thus create his inner “I,” imposed upon him through all possible ethical limitations, becoming “narrow-minded,” fixated, and “packaged” and seemingly interacting with those around him in a precise and correct way. Naturally, in this process he constructs his own image—a black, packed steel “suitcase.”

We are absolutely against this. This is not freedom. A person cannot live like this for long, and if he can, then he loses all sensitivity to perception, sensation, kindness, and mutual understanding. An ethically correct person could decide that somebody should be killed and could easily murder him because this corresponds to the norms accepted in his environment, which he has mastered well. In essence this is fascism, Nazism, all possible forms of utmost extremism, and so on. These forms are the opposite of anarchy.

Here we offer a middle line, a middle state between the two. That is, a person should understand the necessity of each of his ethical positions: Does it correspond to nature, is it acceptable in today’s society and in interactions with those around him? We need to arrange it so that the benefit of society is always placed above that of the individual and in addition, the entire society moves towards an ever-greater integration since this is what nature demands.

Thus, undoubtedly, an ethical framework is necessary, but one that is continuously developing and flexible, existing under self-control and the control of society, without any so-called “sacred cows.” Hence, this is not the ethics offered by the proponents of “Prussian training”: “What we will drill into you will stay with you for life.”
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: You said that the overall integral education curriculum consists of approximately ten courses. The history of evolution of egoism is an on-going course that continues until the complete integration of humanity. What other courses are included aside from perception of reality and psychology?

Answer: We should definitely study human physiology and demonstrate just to what extent our body is structured in a holistic way, whereby all the bodily organs are interconnected. They are all composed of opposite elements and function in different ways, but each organ operates in harmony with itself and others. A departure from this harmony is what we call illness, and it instantly causes a malfunction in the operation of the entire organism.

Similarly, within the organism of society each person should be its united, integral, and simultaneously unique individual part. Nobody infringes on my individuality, but I need to correctly balance myself with the entire society, and then society will represent a single healthy organism, a healthy collective. And together this collective will then unite with nature.

Generally, I need to constantly think of how to be organically and integrally connected with myself, society, and with nature. Initially I cannot connect with other people, and I need to know whether relative to nature this would also be unification or not. In other words, everything needs to be formed simultaneously: individual, group, society, and nature.

And this is why our courses need to include the following sequential studies:

1. Human physiology, physiology of integral systems, the structure of integral systems, their interdependence and feedback mechanisms, tracking factor, and system equilibration or progression along a set course towards a particular goal, as in small cybernetic systems with simple feedback loops;
2. The structure of creation and of society, perception of reality, and history;
3. Practical application within a group, family, on oneself, and in society;
4. Crisis, its cause and purpose;
5. Courses on upbringing in which we supplement all that with practical activities. This includes trips, tours, and so on.

The guiding principle of all the courses is to provide a person with a sensation of integrality of the world, which is perceived by us, egoists, as the opposite, anti-integral and isolated. It’s more convenient for us to imagine it this way so as to “swallow” it in parts, to maximally exploit it for our own sake.

But when I think about the fact that this system must work precisely in this integral form and that I will feel good because of it, then I have to study it, its interaction, interdependence, and global scope. This helps me to be a co-participant, compassionate and empathetic.

That is why all the above mentioned courses are necessary and will include no more than ten interconnected disciplines. All the courses (each with its own particular emphasis) develop a clarification of the subjects: from the small technical details of integral, analog, and servo systems, the structure of our organism, physiology, and psychology to a gradual transition towards mutual involvement.

Each course must be taught by a specialist. Every specialist naturally should be appropriate for the given group, that is, as is known from psychological practice, he or she must be compatible with it so that people accept, respect, and value him or her, and hear what he or she has to say. He must treat them correspondingly, be of a corresponding age, title, and so on because we’re dealing with beginners that judge others “by the cover” so to speak. Although in principle, anyone can be an instructor if they are studying in our system today and have no academic titles. But it is preferable that an instructor be someone whom the listeners respect.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

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Question: When we speak about evil, what exactly do we mean by the term “evil?”

Answer: I discover the Creator as the source of evil and at the same time I understand that I see Him that way because of my bad qualities. So, I understand that it all depends precisely on my attributes.

There are three things before me: the Creator, my evil, and desire. Can I think about the Creator as the good and the benevolent? After all, I feel bad and see troubles and darkness. Still I determine that the good is Above and the evil is inside me. The reason is that in the middle there is something that turns the good into evil.

I feel it in my bones that this is what happens. I am made of these three discernments, and they are in my feeling and my understanding. Such a state is called “double concealment.” In the spiritual space it is the furthest level from the Creator, and everything before it belongs to the beastly level.

It is important to remember that these things already exist in me: I feel the Creator as good and benevolent, I feel my own evil and I can’t get rid of this feeling, and I also understand the fact that I myself corrupt the Creator’s good attitude when I feel it as bad. If we annul this mechanism of turning the good to evil, if we correct it, I will certainly feel the goodness.

Then there is a question. What is the goal: to feel good or to not curse the Creator? From here on the clarification begins: Why was I given the bad feeling? What should I do with it? If I annul it, I will deny myself the option to be corrected. It is by being opposite from the Creator’s goodness that I can reach His good attitude in order not to curse Him.

This means that I use the evil on the way to goodness. Does that mean that now, when I feel bad, it is actually in my favor, and that it is actually what is good for me? So what am I correcting? [Read more →]

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: When a person comes to courses of integral education, we will start by telling him about the wonderful integral world that we already are starting to build. Yet now, he lives in a horrible world that puts pressure on him. Where can he find the motivation in order to stay on this path?

Answer: We must educate people, and they will build their world. When large masses of people gradually begin changing, this naturally will bring a change in the state of society, its structure, and in the interaction among the adults. When these “grownup children” grow up, everything will change.

However, we still must begin with the individual since he is the center of everything. Then, public interactions gradually will change. Daycare, school, family, and children’s activities should be interconnected in order to create a generation that will change our world because it will change in the process of maturing.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/13/11

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Question: You often bring up the example of a mother’s relationship to her child and her relationship to a neighbor’s child saying that if she would see the neighbor’s child as her own, she would no longer perceive that child’s flaws. How can you make a human heart love someone?

Answer: It only can happen through the force of habit. The habit then becomes second nature, through the conviction of the surrounding society, its good examples, through songs and films, and everything that influences a person. The influence of the surrounding society can program me to hate my own child and to love the neighbor’s child.

The environment can do anything! The environment is stronger than my nature because it pertains to the human level and my nature operates on the animal level. We see how drastically a person can change due to his environment. This is because the influence of society is stronger than any other influence.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 5, 1/2/12

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