In the News (from The Christian Science Monitor): “In a nation soon to be dominated by single adults, more Americans find marriage obsolete or worth putting off. But can a society afford to have so many people unwilling to make a self-sacrifice to another in a bond that drives civilization?

“The latest data show that unwed adults now almost outnumber those who are wed. Within a few years, the majority of adults over 18 will be single.

“The median age for marriage is now at its highest level as more young people put off tying the knot or cohabiting instead. And last year, only 9 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds were married, a big drop from 45 percent a half century ago.

“Surprisingly, the research doesn’t show that the Great Recession is the cause. Rather, a values revolution is driving many people away from making that special self-sacrifice to a spouse and from cherishing marriage as a social good with economic security that can leave behind a better generation. [emphasis mine]

“Children of divorce are often afraid to tie the knot. Others put careers and education first. And with less social obligation to marry these days, finding Mr. or Ms. Right seems less urgent.

“These trends are worse among the less educated, blacks, and Hispanics. For them, this ‘marriage gap’ causes many to lose out on the economic benefits of marriage. College-educated whites, meanwhile, still largely embrace marriage, allowing most to hang onto the American dream.

“Marriage, of course, isn’t for everybody. But its decline signals a troublesome shift away from the enduring spiritual values of self-denial for the sake of others, best expressed in marriage and, with it, parenthood.

“It is not only individuals who lose the opportunity to learn the happiness of finding one’s good in another, but society loses out as well.” [emphasis mine]
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Opinion: (Herman Van Rompuy, EU President): “European Union President Herman Van Rompuy is just trying to spread a little happiness. For the New Year, the politician who fancies soothing Haiku poetry in his free time is sending The World Book of Happiness to world leaders and urging them ‘to make people’s happiness and well-being our political priority for 2012.’

“‘Positive thinking is no longer something for drifters, dreamers, and the perpetually naive,’ Van Rompuy said.

“His ‘happiness’ message comes at a time when the European Union is going through the worst crisis in its half-century history, as high levels of government debt threaten the future of the shared euro currency.

“The book may even hold a key for some of the richer member states, who have been reluctant to help out troubled nations like Italy and Spain, which are suffering from high levels of debt that need to be refinanced.

“‘Money can buy happiness, if we spend it on others,’ it says.”

My Comment: Because the essence of the created being is the desire to receive pleasure, we feel happiness when this desire is filled, and vice versa, when it’s not, we are unhappy. Under the influence of personal and social egoism, we accept artificial fulfillment as happiness and never feel contentment.

Today, when we have entered the global crisis and feel emptiness, we begin to realize that we can be filled only by such natural fulfillments as calmness, kindness, and reciprocity, and nothing else. Hence, we will arrive to the need to become closer, to observe the condition of the general integral connection. As a manifestation of disease, the crisis directs us to receive treatment.
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In the News (from GALLUP): “More Europeans are ‘suffering’ than ‘thriving’ in several countries hard-hit by the financial crisis, including a number that have already introduced or are introducing austerity measures. More than one in five residents rate their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Latvia, and Portugal. The largest gap between thriving and suffering is in Bulgaria, where 45% are suffering and 5% are thriving.

“Gallup classifies respondents’ wellbeing as thriving, struggling, or suffering according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale.”

My Comment: In the end, we find humanity in the semi-darkness and low spirits—from the results of its own progress. But it is important to realize that this time is not the end, but a new beginning! However, in contrast to the previous states, it is difficult to see future here because it is opposite to our egoistic nature, thus the need to disseminate a new kind of knowledge, meaning integral upbringing.
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Opinion: (G. Lebedev, Research Director at HeadHunter, from professia.info): “If the crisis in Europe triggers a second wave of the global economic crisis, young specialists will be the first to suffer as employers will opt to hire experienced workers that can produce reliable results.

“In 2009 the number of vacancies for young specialists fell five times since employers sought to reduce risks as much as possible. The upshot was that specialists with extensive (6 years or more) experience were much more likely to find employment.

My Comment: This problem will lead to others: Without a job a person can’t start a family, take out loans for a home, and so on….
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Question: 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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In the News (from News Junkie Post): “Various prophecies of doom and gloom or even of an Apocalypse have been linked to calendar year 2012. An Apocalypse (Greek etymology: ‘lifting the veil’ or ‘revelation’) is often wrongly viewed as the end of all things, but of course the very etymology of the word contradicts this notion. As a powerful revelation, an Apocalypse is a universal moment of truth, a quantum leap into uncharted territories. It appears that the world at large has already entered this unique phase in human history.

“The Mayans did not see the fateful date of December 21, 2012 as ‘the end of the world,’ but instead, they perceived it as a time of transition from one world age into another. The core message of the Mayans concerned our ability to make a choice, and either embrace bravely this new future or try to hold on to the past and face potential dreadful consequences. According to the Mayans, our resistance or acceptance of this paradigm shift could determine if the transition happens with chaos and violent cataclysmic changes or instead with peace and tranquility.

“‘Many people have an intuitive sense that the end of the Mayan calendar will bring a shift in consciousness. Yet, it is rarely clearly stated or explained exactly what is the source of such a shift, how it will happen or what would be its nature,’ Wrote Carl Johan Calleman in March 2010.

“‘Initially, there will be a great need for people to take initiatives to disseminate the call for the Conscious Convergence around the world,’ wrote Calleman.

“The paradigm shift described by Calleman as either shift of consciousness or Conscious Convergence is already on its way. The train of history has ‘left the station,’ and as a matter of fact, it is a bullet train. This paradigm shift of global human history started in the Spring of 2011 in the Arab word. …However, the chain of events of the Arab revolution was highly predictable without referring to either the Mayan prophecy or other crystal balls.

“Since the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement has shown a remarkable adaptability and resilience, and it is now becoming viral. It has caught on in Western Europe, in Greece, the UK, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. But more importantly, it is now a force to be reckoned with in the bastion of imperialism: the United States of America. The main reason why the Occupy movement is getting so much traction in the United States is that nearly one in two Americans-according to new US Census Bureau figures – have fallen into poverty or are struggling to live on low income.

“The Occupy paradigm shift is not a supernatural ‘meant to happen’ force or strange astrological phenomenon, but instead it is a prosaic movement grounded in some simple principles such as fairness, equality and social justice. It has its foundation in the conviction that 99 percent of the world population should be controlling resources and managing their own affairs instead of letting 1 percent of it run the world in such an unsustainable way that they are joyfully taking us to an abyss.

“The tyrants, the dictators, the oligarchs, and the ‘masters of the universe’ of the financial world have been put on notice by the 99 percent. If they resist, the Tsunami wave of the Occupy movement will eventually topple them or fully degrade their power and wealth. It is just a question of time, and after all there is a full year left before the end of the Mayan calendar. The Global Occupy movement is probably our best hope, not as the 99 percent but as human beings, to resolutely change our course and promote a world where a ‘Dog eat Dog’ culture does not prevail. A way of life that is based on fairness, justice and on the respect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
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Question: 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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Question: 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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Opinion: (Philip Stephens, Financial Times columnist): “The story of 2011 has been of the advance of democracy and the failure of democracies. In the Arab world, tyrants have fallen on the region’s political awakening. In rich nations, elected leaders have been frozen in crisis. Welcome to another of the paradoxes of the new global disorder.

“I do not recall the advance predictions that the good news this year would come from the Arab street; nor that the bad news would see a Greek debt crisis turn into an existential threat to half a century of European integration. We are in an age that habitually defies the easy assumptions of the old order. The passing of two centuries of western hegemony will be an unpredictable and uncomfortable experience.

“The road to democracy will be uneven. Americans and Europeans will not like some of the choices made by newly-emancipated citizens. But then the west still clings to its own double standards, cheering the uprisings in the Maghreb while hoping the autocrats cling on in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

“I have lost count of the number of summits called to save the euro.

“Some blame the system. The single currency was always flawed; Washington has been paralysed by congressional gerrymandering. But you cannot leave out the personalities. Europe is governed by followers. Barack Obama once looked different. In the event, a big orator has turned out a small president.

“The thread that runs across the Atlantic is one of popular disenchantment with political establishments. Whether it is fear of the bond markets or competition from rising economies, governments are trapped between global economics and local politics.

“It is no good blaming democracy. As the well-worn saying goes, it is the worst of political systems save for all the others. If there is a bright spot in the sea of bleakness it is that autocrats everywhere have even more to fear from 2012.”

My Comment: The fears of the poor and rich, ordinary people and autocrats, together with hesitation and a lack of decisions will lead to despair, or a world war, or the opportunity to hear a “ridiculous” solution: to strive for integration based on general integral education and upbringing. The method and materials, teachers and educators are ready!
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In the News (from The Economist): “The Credit Suisse ‘Global Wealth Report’ estimates that there were 24.2m millionaires [a millionaire is anyone whose net assets exceed $1m. That includes everything: a home, an art collection, even the value of an as-yet-inaccessible pension scheme] in mid-2010, about 0.5% of the world’s adult population. By this measure, there are more millionaires than there are Australians. They control $69.2 trillion in assets, more than a third of the global total. Some 41% of them live in the United States, 10% in Japan and 3% in China.

“The global wealth pyramid has a very wide base and a sharp point. The richest 1% of adults control 43% of the world’s assets; the wealthiest 10% have 83%. The bottom 50% have only 2%. This suggests a huge disparity of influence. The wealthiest tenth control the vast bulk of the world’s capital, giving them a lot of say in funding businesses, charities and politicians. The bottom 50% control hardly any capital at all.”

My Comment: Until people become equal, the causes of hostility, insecurity, and hatred will not disappear. According to the plan of nature, we must realize that the most perfect state of humanity is equality (see Baal HaSulam’s article “Peace in the World”). First, it is equality with each other, which is the first degree of our spiritual development, and then equality with the Creator, which is the final, 125th degree of this ladder, the purpose of creation.
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