Question: There is a new global phenomenon, a sort of “time banking.” They receive investments not in money but in work hours. For example, someone invests in hours of gardening and another donates an hour of teaching math and so on. Could it be that humanity has identified the problem of inequality, when a person’s abilities determine his wellbeing?

Answer: I don’t think that this is the right way to go. As usual lack of understanding leads to distortion.

A professor can do things that are a thousand times greater than a plumber, for example, and a million times greater than a simple worker. He can build an instrument, for example, or invent something that millions can use.

In spiritual terms on every level there is a state of Hafetz Hesed, but these states are different and each is on a different level. You build bestowal above your desire to receive and someone else above his desire to receive. So you are not equal.

People who exchange services according to this formula, annul competition and ignore the desire to receive, and yet, without it, it is impossible to exist. It seems that everyone is generous and all is divided equally. But history proves that all the attempts to create artificial equality lead to collapse and even greater competition. So such ideas will not succeed in the long run.

The true advancement is in three lines, not in one. It is a great wisdom, which can only be received from Above with the help of the Light that Reforms. It isn’t simple. The middle line cannot be conveyed from one to another. It needs someone who understands how to manage it from Above. You connect to him and learn from him and attain his approach—only then will you be able to act on your own.

Eventually, no one will understand why the “time bank” will suddenly go bankrupt. People will check themselves and look for reasons and will then come to us and beg for help. They will understand that there is a special “patent” here, although they don’t quite know what it is yet. “You have something that really works,” they will say. “So lead us to it!”

There are quite a few such initiatives that people have to go through. Otherwise humanity will not feel helpless and will not cry out from the level it is on—like the outcry of the children of Israel in Egypt.

Then humanity will realize that the solution that we offer stems from the Creator. They will come to us because we have a connection to the spiritual root that is drawn through the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is what will attract them. Today they are repelled by it and tomorrow they will be attracted out of despair, out of an internal breaking point, when they try to reach bestowal their own way and fail.
[91183]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Related Material:
Finding The Force That Evokes Love
Don’t Sink Others Today So They Won’t Drown You Tomorrow
Good Intentions And The Right Intention

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Opinion (Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, Economist and Historian, Politician, member of the British House of Lords): “More equality would not only produce the contentment that flows from more security and better health, but also the satisfaction that flows from having more leisure, more time with family and friends, more respect from one’s fellows, and more lifestyle choices. Great inequality makes us hungrier for goods than we would otherwise be, by constantly reminding us that we have less than the next person. …

“The nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill had a more civilized view:

“’I confess I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think…that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other’s heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human kind. …The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.’”

My Comment: A human being is a psychological system and determines his state only in comparison with his peers. Therefore, the future, how it is felt and perceived, depends on the “settings” of the system “individual-society” in in every human. This is realized in integral education and upbringing.
[91213]

Related Material:
Can Money Buy Happiness?
The Main Problem Of Humanity: Lack Of Happiness
The Global Barometer Of Happiness

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

Opinion (Jane Jones,  David Wong): ”If 80s movies taught us anything, it’s that at some point you’re going to run into a mysterious relic that lets you switch bodies with other people.

“Would you use it? But let’s say the artifact doesn’t let you choose, but will instead switch you randomly with one of the other six billion people on the planet. Virtually nobody will take that deal, for fear they’d switch with some poor villager in Nigeria.

“So what does that say about us? Well, according to experts, it says almost everything we think about what would make us happy is dead wrong. Let’s look at the five things we’re most wrong about…

“#5 Fame…

“This is brand new to humanity, for thousands of years, material goods and security dominated. Now, fame is at the top. Obviously part of the reason is the perception that anybody can get famous these days–reality TV and YouTube have proven that you can become a celebrity for doing not a…thing. But there’s another, less obvious factor. And it explains why so many famous people are miserable.

“So What’s the Problem

“Experts say where you find kids who desperately want to be famous, you find a history of neglect at home. Parents were either absent completely or, at best, emotionally distant…. It turns out the whole surge in aspirations for fame came right along with the explosion of single parents and ‘broken’ homes. Only half of today’s children live with their original two parents.

“You can see how this sad mechanism works in the attention-starved mind. The kid is programmed by biology to love a parent, but the parent doesn’t return the love. Fame lets them turn the tables on that arrangement. When you’re famous, millions love you, but you don’t even know their names. It’s purely one-sided. They wait for hours in the cold for your autograph, you barely glance at them on the way to your limo. You get to take their love and wipe your…with it, the same as your parents did to you.

“But it turns out that kind of massive, paper-thin adoration is a poor substitute. Famous people are four times as likely to commit suicide as the rest of us (…you’d think it’d be higher–everybody reading this has seen more than one of their favorite performers self-destruct).

“#4 Wealth…

“Hey, remember when we said earlier that most people wouldn’t do the body-switching thing for fear they’d wake up in Nigeria? Well according to surveys, Nigerians are happier with their lives than the people of any other country.

“The USA came in 16^th.

Hey, did we mention that the average Nigerian makes $300 a year? That’s less than a hundredth of what the average American makes. America being the country that hands out 120 million prescriptions for anit-depressants every year.

“China is turning into a great object lesson in this, as their economy explodes and incomes skyrocket, but levels of happiness and personal satisfaction are dropping at the same rapid rate.

“There’s a couple of reasons for it. First, your brain adjusts feelings of happiness downward after you’ve reached some goal or other. It regulates the good feelings, presumably so that you have motivation to reach the next goal instead of just lounging by the pool for the rest of your days. …

“#3. Beauty…

“Yes, being physically attractive has concrete advantages. Attractive people earn more, get better grades, have better jobs and find more successful partners than average or ugly people. Strangers are more likely to help them in a crisis. They have wider social circles.

“So What’s the Problem

“Remember, we’re talking about happiness here, not success. For one, attractive people have the same self-esteem problems the ugly people do. Like money, attractiveness is relative and if you’re hotter than your friends, at that stage you start comparing yourself to people in the media. You know, like the magazine covers we mentioned before, the ones that that have had the living…Photoshopped out of them. …

“#2.Genius

“We’re using the broader definition of the word “genius” here, meaning anyone with an extraordinary talent or skill. …

“Want to know what it’s like to live life as a genius? All you have to do is go hang around with the stupidest, most incompetent people you know. Cringe at their stupid jokes, feel the frustration as they fumble even the easiest tasks and fail to grasp the simplest concepts. Being a genius must be like that, only everyday. Everyone is an idiot compared to them. They’re living Idiocracy. …

“If you’re not the Einstein kind of genius, it doesn’t matter, any situation where you’re 10 levels above your coworkers is going to be daily frustration. If you’re a genius at spreading concrete, that feeling only occurs to you in the form of everyone else being sloppy and helpless. No wonder they wind up treating people like dirt.

“Not that you’d have time for friends anyway. Genius takes practice. Lots of it. …

“All of this is a great recipe for the stereotypical depressed, moody genius who dies alone and bitter.

“Wait, it Gets Worse…

“If your genius lies in some kind of creative field, then there’s a good chance you have actual mental illness to deal with. While only one percent of the population suffers from bipolar disorder, it is claimed that 50 percent of poets, 38 percent of musicians and 20 percent of painters have it. It’s just part of the package.

“Compare the number of great musical innovators who have died of suicide or drug overdose versus, say, the number of plumbers who have died the same way. It might be better to just stand in the poop all day.

“#1.Power…

“…power is what everything else on this list is about. Fame is about having power in the relationship with the fans. Beauty is about gaining power through others’ sexual desire and jealousy. Genius means society needs your skills more than you need its approval. Money . . . well, money and power are conjoined twins. …

“So What’s the Problem

“Maybe you’re eying the kind of job where you’ll be the boss, or maybe you want to go into law enforcement. Or maybe you’re just driven by that bitter, unspoken urge almost all of us feel at least once in our youth: ‘I’ll show them! I’ll show them all.’…

“It has nothing to do with the ‘culture of corruption in Washington DC’ the Libertarians are always talking about. You find it everywhere, from the…supervisor to the bitter gym coach. Small people driven to mindless, unethical behavior, drunk on just a few drops of…power. They often can’t make friends, their marriages end badly, they self destruct. The world is full of these miniature, sad Tony Montanas, destined for a proverbial bloody downfall.”

My Comment: Research shows that friendship, altruism, and community service bring happiness and satisfaction. Detachment from attempts to arrange personal, individual happiness and focus on others is what makes happiness possible.
[91030]

Related Material:
Can Money Buy Happiness?
The Main Problem Of Humanity: Lack Of Happiness
Money Cannot Buy Happiness

Filed under: Crisis, Depression, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Society - No Comments →

In the News (from Rabobank): “Skyrocketing agricultural commodity prices are causing the world to re-enter a period of “agflation”, with food prices forecast to reach record highs in 2013 and to continue to rise well into Q3 2013. Unlike the staple grain shortage of 2008, this year’s scarcity will affect feed intensive crops with serious repercussions for the animal protein and dairy industries. …

“Rabobank estimates that the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Food Price Index will rise by 15% by the end of June 2013. In order for demand rationing to take place, in turn encouraging a supply response, prices will need to stay high. As such Rabobank expects prices – particularly for grains and oilseeds – to remain at elevated levels for at least the next 12 months.”

“While the impact of higher food prices should be reduced by favorable macroeconomic fundamentals (low growth, lower oil prices, weak consumer confidence, and a depreciated U.S. dollar), interventionist government policies could exacerbate the issue. Stockpiling and export bans are a distinct possibility in 2012/13, as governments seek to protect domestic consumers from increasing food prices. Increased government intervention will likely encourage further increases in world commodity and food prices.

“Rabobank expects that localized efforts to increase stockpiles will prove counterproductive at the global level, with those countries least able to pay higher prices likely to see greater moves in domestic food price inflation. This is a vicious circle, with governments committing to domestic stockpiling and other interventionist measures earlier than usual—recognizing the risk of being left out as exportable stocks decline further.

“On top of that, Rabobank warns that global food stocks have not been replenished since 2008, leaving the market without any buffer to adverse growing conditions. Efforts by governments to rebuild stocks are likely to add to food prices and take supplies off the market at a time when they are most needed.”

My Comment: If we distribute food equally among all the population, it will be enough for everybody. The problem is not in the quantity of food, but in its distribution, that is, in human relations. So, we are not facing a food crisis, but a crisis of distribution.

Incidentally, the word “crisis” means “opportunity” in Chinese; if we use it properly, we all have enough.
[91131]

Related Material:
“UN Warns Of Rising Food Costs”
The World In Food Crisis
Food Crisis – Rising Food Prices and the Meaning of Life

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Integral Upbringing, Society, World - No Comments →

The heart is at the center of everything. It’s not an accident that we associate human desires and passions with the heart. We say, “from the bottom of my heart,” or “my heart is bleeding,” or “my heart is melting with joy,” or “follow your heart.” The heart can be “kind,” “tender,” “sinking,” “broken,” etc. In general, the heart signifies the essence of life, both in the material and spiritual senses. Of course, we use this word symbolically. The heart per se is a bodily organ; it can be implanted and/or replaced even by a man-made device. Essentially, the heart is a “pump.”

However, it’s hard to overestimate the significance of this organ since it denotes the main action of nature, the act of receiving and giving. The heart “collects” blood from the entire body and then delivers it to all other organs by applying pressure; thus, it provides nourishment to all body parts and cleans them of toxins.

By all means, the heart doesn’t work on its own. It simply cannot pump blood through the entire body without blood vessels that interact with the heart by pushing the blood further to every single cell of the organism. The heart works not because it’s so strong, but rather it sets the rhythm and instigates the original impulse in the body. Then, multiple mechanisms of the blood system (which are not yet explored well enough by contemporary science) begin working together with the heart. Hence, the heart is not only a bodily “pump,” it also coordinates other systems.

There are multiple problems associated with the heart’s work, since “receiving and giving” have to be well-balanced. The health of the entire body depends on the harmony between these two states, which makes it possible to evaluate both physical and spiritual (internal) constituents of a person. If a system of receiving and bestowal is well-balanced (similarly to how it is attuned in the heart), then one harmoniously interacts with others and maintains correct relationships with one’s surroundings. We receive and give (in the same way as the heart), thus providing healthy collaboration with other people.

In other words, at the interpersonal level, we all are connected with each other through our “hearts,” meaning through our qualities. Ideally, we have to use our qualities to pursue one purpose, which is to maintain harmonious relationships with others, meaning giving and receiving all that is needed.

At the same time, the heart per se doesn’t need anything except minimal energy to provide normal work. It doesn’t consume blood that flows through it, nor does it receive anything specific; it simply functions. The “pleasure” it receives (if we can use this word in this context) is the fact that it serves the entire body and pours energy into it.

This is a good example of mental/spiritual health with behavior in accordance with the principles: “Don’t do to others what you hate for yourself” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” One has to regard the needs of his surroundings as his own and provide others with everything that is in his power to satisfy all of their external necessities. This is exactly how the heart functions.

Current research states that we are closely interconnected in many different ways, not excluding the unity of our souls. So, we can say that the systems we belong to have reciprocal influences upon each other. As a result, when we have a nervous breakdown or low spirits, they by all means reflect upon our heart. Our heart is very sensitive to our spirits; the heart can get “sick” not only as a result of some physical disease. It’s not an accident that when we get into a critical situation we put our hand on our hearts, since our nervous system instantaneously affects the heart and forces it to respond.

Our understanding of what’s going on in the higher systems of egoistic relationships among us starts from here. So far, we are using our “hearts” solely for mercenary receiving that has no sign of giving whatsoever, meaning that we use the heart in a completely wrong way, whereas all it needs is harmony. Besides that, we influence our physical heart from the level of our desires and corrupt relationships.

Until now, we were not involved in integral connections of the global community; this explains why the impact of these mechanisms remained so weak. However, in the middle of the last century, a close connection among all of us emerged; nevertheless, we still continue acting selfishly instead of cultivating our relations. As a result, wrong egoistic interactions impact our physical hearts. There’s nothing strange about the intensification of cardiac problems that has turned out to be one of the most dangerous health issues nowadays.

It’s not hard to cure the heart, since it’s not a really complex organ. Although, all we do at this time is “mend” it by using various symptomatic remedies, and in the meantime, statistics continue to show dismal trends. It happens because we haven’t started to correct the relationships between us. Only by building the right mechanism of receiving and giving at the human level, the highest level, only through “pumping” the system with correct and equal relationships that convey harmony and peace can we alter our bodily systems, first and foremost, our cardio-vascular system.

It’s worth mentioning that the configuration of our heart, its mitral valves, mode of operation, and related systems, are in line with our spiritual structure. However, we don’t take into account the wholeness of our organism, but rather treat visible symptoms and not the real cause of the disease.

Even doctors agree that “everything comes from the head,” and the “head of everything” is our relationships, thoughts and desires. In spirituality, the “heart” is the core of our desires so much stems from the spiritual qualities of a person.

In fact, the only cure for the heart is love. It is said, “Love covers all crimes.” In other words, if one’s heart works solely for bestowal and strives to satisfy external needs, it means that “one works with love,” either to one’s body or to one’s neighbors. No doubt that this kind of work, by all means, should result in a complete cure. So, instead of “heart research institutes,” I would open “institutes of love.” It will be the best preventive method ever.
[90027]
From a “Talk About the New Life” 10/10/12

Related Material:
The Paradigm Of Balance
Nothing Can Be Revealed In Its Complete Form
“Smiling Reduces Stress And Helps The Heart”

Filed under: Collective Soul, Integral Upbringing, Love, Society, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: Is it possible that our aspiration toward the new integral level in our relationships will become the solution to a person’s suffering?

Answer: I am confident that integral unity will be able to distribute all pluses and minuses of the modern society in such a way that they all will become balanced. This harmony will be sensed by everyone.

It really will calm down everyone not only within the society’s relationships, but also in the political, economic, upbringing, and educational areas. It will lift humanity to a totally different level.

People will begin sensing that they live in the integral world, in the world of whole nature. I think that we will see a different world precisely through the expansion of integral interaction.
[90317]
From KabTV’s “Building the Social Environment,” 9/24/12

Related Material:
Toward The New World Through Integral Interaction
How To Protect Yourself From Unnecessary Problems
Text – Teacher

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

The brain, our intellect, can function properly only under the condition that it feels a higher system with which it needs to keep in touch, serve, and receive commands from.

Every person, as a “cell” of the total body, needs to maintain full contact with all the rest and with nature. Ideally, the brain needs to know its personal function in the general system. It needs to become familiar with this system in relation to itself, and through this, it will learn to maintain the health of its part and serve all.

Then the brain will begin to activate the body correctly, including all of its organs: the heart, the nervous, lymphatic, and circulatory systems and so on. The whole body will function according to the full connection it needs to maintain with the general system.

Therefore, in our physical health and especially our mental or spiritual health, we are totally connected with others and with the whole universe. In fact, all the systems are connected. But our ego inserts a defect in them on all levels and sections. Therefore, by changing a person’s attitude towards others, he begins the global change of all the systems. But we don’t see it immediately because of our interdependence. Until we all will be corrected, it is impossible to talk about someone’s such recuperation separately.

Similarly, all of our illnesses are also caused by wrong commands, incorrect signals coming from the brain. Indeed, it leads everything; despite the fact that it only “coordinates” between us and the general system. It by itself acts according to the system’s commands and directs the body according to the general external need.

Whether we want it or not, each one of us is part of humanity. Therefore, our brain receives commands from the general “field” to which it is always connected, and all of us are in it. This system is beyond our material framework, it is one and includes everybody and our brain represents it.

The problem is that it is incapable of acting correctly until we know from where it receives orders. The signals are sent from the general “field” of wisdom, the field of Light, the thought of creation. And in order to function properly, the brain must maintain a balance with this general brain.

Similar to quantum physics and other sciences, we came to a boundary in this field, where beyond it hides the unknown. But that area can also be researched. So if you will want to know the real reasons for what is happening, then ascend above. It is time to finally ascend to the level of reasons. When we will correct them, we won’t need any medicine.
[90215]
From a “Talk About a New Life” 10/10/12

Related Material:
I Exist As Long As I Am Needed
The Brain: A Secret That Is Inaccessible To Science
Modern Science On The Verge Of The Unknown

Filed under: Collective Soul, Integral Upbringing, Society, World - No Comments →

Question: In the course of discussions on integral education questions arise regarding family relations because people are tired of domestic problems and feel that they don’t need families. How can it be explained to a person that he needs a family? What is the benefit of forming this kind of relationship for a person’s development?

Answer: Some time ago people lived very primitively: We didn’t leave our towns, our personal relations and sex were primitive—we didn’t demand anything.

Today people change every few years or even more frequently. We are not satisfied with the same old things. If I married a girl that I liked and that really suited me in my twenties, then in my thirties I no longer like that girl. And in my fifties and sixties I no longer like the second woman. What can be done? We feel that our views differ and it’s not anyone’s fault.

This is the turbulent inner evolution we are experiencing today and this is how rapidly we are changing.

For this reason, no one should impose the idea of a long-term marriage on people, especially given today’s life span. A serious incentive system should be invented in a marriage so that people would see a clear benefit to getting married since they have to override the habits, responsibilities, moral and physical mismatch with the partner they spent ten or fifteen years with. How can this be done?

There must exist a higher idea, something higher than our world, some reward that could only be obtained within a marriage.
[90206]
From KabTV’s  “Building a Social Environment” 9/24/12

Related Material:
The Family As The Center Of The Universe
A Revolution In The Family
Overview Of The Integral Education Course: Family Relationships

Filed under: Family, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society - 1 Comment →

Question: I have a friend who grew up in Caucasus where there is a tradition of family connections that are very warm. She went to Moscow and built a career for herself there, but she completely lost the connection with her family and is not able to re-establish the previous relationships. Is it worthwhile for a person who bases himself on the principles of integral education to build integral environments around him: to attract the family, relatives, and friends? Or is it possible to be satisfied with friends outside of the family circle, those who are correctly structured?

Answer: I think that a person needs to introduce integral education at home, in the family. Does one need to act similarly in a mutual way with the rest of the relatives? It is hard to say, since relationships with relatives vary, and it is impossible to give definite advice here.

There are people who connect with relatives once a year and that might even be virtually, by phone. And there are those who meet only at weddings or funerals. Everyone is completely different.

There are relatives with close kinship, like your friend, and of course in Moscow she wouldn’t find anything like that. You cannot exchange that for anything else.

You need to help her get rid of the emptiness, from the feeling of lack of attention, worry, understanding, and everything else. But the big problem is being in Russia with Caucasian roots. That is not simple at all. It is a completely different mentality.

But if she finds a group that really has the tendency for mutual help, mutual connection, then that will help her in many ways. I think, that at least she won’t suffer. She will be an object of attention toward her and a topic of her attention.
[90084]
From KabTV’s “Building a Social Environment” 9/ 24/12

Related Material:
Is It Possible To Befriend A Mother-In-Law?
Unripe Point In The Heart
How To Protect Yourself From Unnecessary Problems

Filed under: Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Despite studying the anatomy of the body, we still don’t quite understand the connection between all the systems in the human body. If we take the brain for example, there are “envoys” of the brain all over the body without which it wouldn’t know what to do and how. Similarly a head of state employs an array of qualified experts in order to function optimally.

We mistakenly believe that the “main processor” is in the head, but if we look deeper into that matter we will see that it doesn’t exist in our body at all. If we look closely at a person, we will see a lowly mortal, so it isn’t clear where he receives orders from and where his software is.

In fact the relevant data come from the environment, and that is what operates us. I hope that in the near future we will discover that a person’s life depends on connection and his readiness to mutually cooperate with the environment. From there the brain receives orders that result from the degree to which the society needs a certain person. And if he isn’t needed, the brain doesn’t receive anything.  In our bodies, every second cells die and are replaced with new ones. In society, while there is need for you, you are alive, and when not, the brain receives an order and different processes begin at the end of which a person leaves his corporeal role.
[90171]
From a “Talk about a New Life” 10/10/12

Related Material:
The Brain: A Secret That Is Inaccessible To Science
Modern Science On The Verge Of The Unknown
Size Of The Brain Correlated With Sociability

Filed under: Integral Upbringing, Society - No Comments →