Entries in the 'Society' Category

A Deadlock With A Way Out

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The external world around us is reflected in our heads in the form of a certain cognitive structure. This structure, which was formed with the help of our five senses, does not correspond to the true picture of the world. Hence, the internal image of this realm within our brains is quite distorted. When the knowledge is being transferred, it has to be verbalized either orally or in writing. Strangely enough, when we describe an N-dimensional model, we still define it as a one-dimensional space; it means that we allow multiple misrepresentations.

Some time ago, Aristotle mentioned that “the one who tries to put one’s knowledge in writing is unwise, so is the one who later on hopes to find it intact and thinks that it is ready for further use.” Why has nature created such a weird and complicated way to visualize a real picture of the world? Why in order to transfer knowledge are we using a tool that is so “defective”?

Answer: Everything that nature does is perfect, although we use our trivial, tiny potentials to take advantage of it at our current low egoistic level, like a monkey playing with a computer. We will never comprehend the world that exists outside of us if we don’t acquire qualities similar to it. Aristotle and Plato clearly understood this fact and described it in their works. They thought that the direction would develop egoistically (as in our time, modern science), for its own goal.

Thousands of years of evolution that were flowing in this direction led us to a deadlock and made us finally realize that we are simple little creatures who think of themselves too highly because of our narrow-mindedness; at this time, we have to turn the wheel in a new direction. However, not too many people understand it! There are very few special individuals who not only clearly recognize that we have been trapped into a deadlock, but they also know that our further development can happen only through profound changes in human beings.

A man is the lowest developmental stage of nature, not the highest one. This is a problem. The only thing that the lowest level of nature can do is start climbing back up.

To the extent of our ascent, meaning the modification of our properties from egoistic to altruistic, from linear and individual to global and integral, we will acquire new tools for analysis, synthesis, and conceptions. Then, we will create new devices, an innovative cognitive apparatus, and a novel language.

Thus, everything will be subject to changes. It’s as if we are being born anew internally by perfecting ourselves. Both components of which we are comprised (desires and intellect) will also change. The major difference between them is that the desires are original, whereas the intellect is ancillary.

So, if we intend to explain to a person what the world is that he lives in and what “externality” is, we have to change him; otherwise he won’t understand us at all. He will be on the same wave with the egoists who describe the world using a “square” system that is similar to them, not more than that. None of them realize what the authentic realm in fact is, nor do they feel it whatsoever.

Only the deadlock that we are in at this time can “shake and sober” us; it can force us to think in quite a different way by triggering tremendous sufferings. Instead of changing the world around us, we will have to change internally. We will stop considering everything around us as “damaged,” but rather will re-direct any modifications inward. Only through our internal changes can we alter the society. When the society (us included) starts changing, everything there is (inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature) will be exposed to us as a new upper world.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/3/12

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Peace Is When The Strong Have Heard The Weak

Dr. Michael Laitman

In the News (from MIT News): “To help promote peace in the Middle East, many organizations have established ‘peace camps’ or similar conflict-resolution programs that bring Israelis and Palestinians together to foster greater understanding of the opposing group.

“One common feature of such programs is the opportunity for members of each group to share stories about their lives with members of the other group. Now, a new study from MIT neuroscientists shows that the benefits from this exchange are much greater when members of the less empowered group share their stories with the traditionally dominant group than when the reverse occurs

“The finding, published online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, supports the idea that for the disempowered group, the biggest barrier to reconciliation is the belief that their concerns are being ignored, says Rebecca Saxe, senior author of the study. …

“Each participant was assigned to write about the difficulties of life in their society, or to read and summarize such an essay written by a member of the opposing group. All interactions took place through video and text-based chat. Each participant was paired with someone who, unbeknownst to the subject, was actually a research assistant.

“In a questionnaire given before and after the interaction, attitudes toward the opposing group improved most among members of the disempowered group who told their own stories, and among members of the dominant group who read others’ stories.

“When members of the less powerful group simply wrote their stories without having anyone from the opposing group read them, this did not boost their attitudes towards the other group — reinforcing the importance of being heard.

”For the dominant group, the researchers believe that hearing the opposing group’s stories is beneficial because members of the group in power often fear being blamed for the conflict. Therefore, listening gives ‘an opportunity for them to act virtuously and morally and to show that they’re actually good people,’ Saxe says.

My Comment: Only dialogue in the form of a roundtable (sadna) will help bring people together and then connect them, up to the point of complete inclusion of everyone in the world, and thus achieve full integration, and in it the feeling of entering the next dimension, our next state, intended by evolution.
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How To Protect Yourself From Unnecessary Problems

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: While studying the integral principles, a person gets a good sense of community, and then he returns to the outside world where he is forced to interact with dozens of people. He needs to go to clinics, school, etc. There he encounters a completely different picture, where everything is built on making more money and giving nothing in return. How can he work with this terrible system?

Answer: Frankly, I don’t know what to say because I am not in any system at all. I am, in general, isolated from the world and only know about the world from what is said by hearsay: the Internet, television, radio, and newspapers; I am connected with many people and get a lot of information from all these sources, but I have no personal contact with these organizations.

I understand that life is very difficult, that it exhausts a person, wears down his health and nerves. Perhaps we should still try to respond to everything in a good way. I think that at least then you can protect yourself from unnecessary problems.

You do not swear and pretend that you are a fool; you are just a normal serious person who understands life a bit, does not attack another person’s views, but treats people with deliberate respect, addresses them with dignity, perhaps even as a teacher to his students. I think this should create a different atmosphere.
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From KabTV’s “Building a Social Environment” 9/24/12

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The Creator’s Circle Of Volunteers

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does this world help us establish the intention of in order to bestow? How can we tie our daily concerns, work, and family to the spiritual work?

Answer: First of all, a person should stabilize the correct relations in the group and in the family as much as he can to secure a reliable back, and only then go out into the world.

Here he must think which circle of the world he should turn to, with what message, when, and what state the society is in. Today things change drastically from day to day, and a person has to decide accordingly and not just act thoughtlessly.

But first we worry about group solidarity. Sometimes in order to form group solidarity it is better to go out into the world and to unite by external collective actions that will connect the friends. But first we must worry about the internal actions that are the most important.

It says that Israel (those who yearn Yashar – Kel  -straight to the Creator) are the fewest of all the nations. We should understand that Israel is a kind of a bubble. If a person is included in this bubble he is called a Jew or Israel—all these names that carry the spiritual message. If a person doesn’t belong to the spiritual message he is not called Israel, he is simply a person from Babel.

It is very important that we understand this. If a person takes this mission upon himself, he becomes Israel, and if he doesn’t, then he isn’t Israel.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/09/12, Writings of Rabash

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Unarmed And Not At All Dangerous

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When it comes to building any new systems, the risks that arise during the building process must be considered. Do we encounter this risk factor while building the integral society?

Answer: I think that there is practically no risk here because a person begins to gain a greater and greater sense of being one, integral whole with his surroundings. A person gains a sense of safety, kindness, goodwill, unity, and a lack of anxiety—in short, he feels all those positive qualities he needs and that he only felt in his mother’s arms. Now he will experience these things while being embraced by the surrounding society. There isn’t a more comfortable state than it.

We are not used to this state. We can’t stand it because it’s too sweet and too unfamiliar to us. It’s something to which we have to get accustomed. But over all a person gets a sense of internal weightlessness.

It’s possible that some people would experience uncomfortable states because they are used to being in a state of constant tension, in readiness to attack and kill. However, here you are going for relaxation, for showing others that you are unarmed and that you are ready to embrace them. This isn’t easy. I would say that there is an element of psychological drama here, a revolution, and an inner bifurcation. But overall, I don’t see people having much of a problem with it. All of these things can be overcome and gradually get resolved.
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From KabTV’s: “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/3/12

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Absorb The Whole Of Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Social science is based on two models that run parallel. One is called the macro-sociological model where the individual personality traits are not taken into account, meaning a person is an object. Another is the micro-sociological model where a person is a subject, and his personal qualities and characteristics are used. Is a person an object or subject in the integral community?

Answer: They both are completely interconnected; otherwise, it’s not integrality. Integrality is not just a sum, but one whole. When all the people act deliberately in the name of the community, then each of them is at the height of this community, becoming its principal member and without disturbing the rest. This is the same analog system in which each smallest element is the most important because if it doesn’t exist, the system is not whole.

Comment: There is a standard anecdotal situation: One is clever, the other one is handsome, and together they participate in building society. Who has the advantage?

Answer: In the integral society no one has any advantage; everyone is very important. Everyone individually, due to his qualities, adds what is necessary to the entire community. One is not like the other, but everyone is equal because relative to integrality each is valued as an element without which it will not exist. Everyone contributes 100% for the system to exist.

Question: So, is everyone both a subject and an object, but without mixing the two characteristics?

Answer: There is no mixing; he connects all this integrally inside because in order to be an integral member of the community, he must feel inside himself all of its properties, desires; he must absorb the whole of society; it must live in him!
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From KabTV’s “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/1/12

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The Immune System Of The Integral Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is common knowledge that the human organism has an immune system that blocks and destroys old defected cells which are still alive. If we compare this to the integral society, does it mean that this system has to get rid of old sick people?

Answer: No. The point is that here we need a system that sorts out what is beneficial and what is harmful. There is nothing harmful in nature. It is all revealed this way to us because we don’t know how and what to implement correctly. Nothing is destroyed in nature. Everything that nature develops is necessary and so it should be the same in human society. This means that we are going to see how various intractable, negative forces remain outside of our success in integral education do so because we do not put in the correct effort.

On the basis of these examples, we will just learn to improve our system of education and teaching and thus advance. We should be thankful to all the revelations of our deficiencies because they constantly compel us to further develop this method and will serve as the basis for its development.

I believe that the revelation of the negative attributes is as beneficial as the revelation of the positive attributes. It is negative feedback that corrects our focus towards the ultimate goal.

Question: So it turns that a direct transfer of the human organism model, or of what we see in nature, and our attempt to implement it without explaining the real reasons why it is that way in nature actually leads to great problems.

Answer: No. Here it is implemented on the model of a closed living body, which we have to keep balanced. In order to do that we have to sort out, clarify, and analyze the elements or the attributes that we receive from the outside and what we need.

This is because we realize that no matter how much we try to absorb only what is beneficial from the environment around us, a lot of harmful things also enter the organism. That which is harmful needs to be identified, collected, and evacuated from the body. This is what our physiological systems do, and it is the same on the cognitive level. The immune system stands guard and destroys everything that penetrates the organism that is hostile to the body.

I think this system has to be created in society until it reaches its ultimate form. If a certain part of humanity is in the process of becoming integral, it will certainly have to set some limits and boundaries around it so that outsiders will not be able to influence it. This means that in contrast to the rest of humanity, these people will have to live according to laws and constitutions and different social and family relations, which they accept according to their spiritual level and their altruistic development.

Of course, like a healthy organism, they will have to protect themselves from evil external influences. Here there should be an immune system that warns if a negative influence is felt in the society, and should immediately identify and remove it.
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From KabTV’s “The Integral World: The Formula of Integral Society,” 7/1/12

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Are Parts Of My Soul Wandering In The Streets?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I hold on to the spiritual work as strongly as possible in my daily life (on the street, the public transportation, etc)?

Answer: I try to look at everything through the system of connection, through the system of mutual completion. I wonder if through everything that appears before me I will see the mutual cooperation between the two opposing forces that depict different images to me.

If I am in a circle at a workshop and there are nine friends before me, partners but also competitors in a way, as to who will give the best answer and who will answer less accurately, how we can complete one another, how we can play together in order to find the right answers? There is much closeness and oppositeness here.

If I am on the street, why can’t I see an identical partner in everyone that evokes certain feeling in me? It makes no difference whether it is for or against, what’s important is how I respond to him. Can I respond to him as to someone who is very close to me? My ego doesn’t let me. If I could look at him differently, I would see a very close and dear person and I would immediately change my attitude toward him.

We have to play with that by turning on the start-stop button of receiving and bestowal and constantly clarifying our relations with others. Then you will become more flexible and acquire a softer attitude to life and to the world.

But on the whole, of course you want to see the managing force through this attitude, which presents this whole picture to you and projects it before you so that you will see the revelation of the Creator, so that behind this picture you will see the managing force.
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From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 09/23/12

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You Cannot Trick A Donkey With Chaff

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I am corrected, I see a better world around me. But if I see suffering around, how should I treat it?

Answer: Our life is a duality. On one hand, our body belongs to the animate world, but on the other hand, the desire that we are developing belongs to a higher level, the human degree.

It is said about the world that we see around us: “Everyone is like an animal.” A human being in our world is not just similar to an animal, he is even worse. By nature, animals instinctively take care of their own existence. They have no urge for binge eating, inventing goodies, sweets, and delicacies for themselves; grains or grass are enough for a donkey. Give him bread instead, and he will not want it. Similarly, animals have no impulse to overindulge in sex; they act on instinct, breeding in the seasons designated by nature. They do not have palaces, burrows are enough for them. This is animal existence.

Unlike them, a human has exorbitant desires so that as a result of development they discover it has brought him to a dead end. This is what we reveal today.

So seeing people’s suffering, we have to mentally divide their existence into two parts. What does a person need on the animal level to live a healthy normal life? He needs a shelter, food, clothing, family and other necessary, but only rational, conditions. Of course, we cannot live as we did a thousand generations ago. I need to wish everyone in the world to have acceptable conditions, but not more. The general law of nature states: On the animal level, you must ensure your existence, and all your other desires, thoughts, and abilities, everything that you have in addition, you must devote to spiritual ascent.

So, if we talk about the future world, about the life until the end of correction, when this world disappears from our feelings, the reasonable set of things, necessary for material existence should be provided and everything else given to spiritual development.

If today, we had organized our life in this way, we would have found that there is everything in this world necessary to provide each of the seven billion people with normal physical conditions. Most of the day, we would be free from material work in order to study and realize our internal spiritual work to change ourselves. This is what we should strive for.

I do not know yet how it can be realized in practice, but hope very much that we will be able to explain to people that this is the correct way of life in the world. Through the crisis and explanations, we will come to the middle line, to a state, in which the world accepts it.
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From the Convention in Italy 9/30/12, Lesson 2

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Welcome To The Integral Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Any system built sooner or later faces the external resistance of the world. What kinds of informational counteractions can we create in the integral society?

Suppose the world around us is indifferent at the moment to the idea of establishing an integral society. But at some point we will begin to disturb them at least by the fact that people in the integral society live a better, happier life than they do. Then they will begin to feel a resistance. So in any case there is a hostile environment.

Answer: First, I think that there doesn’t have to be a hostile environment. This society should be open for everyone. Certainly it should have some kind of buffer zone in which those who want to join this society are educated and after having studying seriously and having been trained they could be gradually integrated into the integral society.

This isn’t what is done in Europe. The French began accepting everyone from North Africa, since as they claim, “we occupied you and now we are giving you a chance to join us.” This wasn’t a wise political move when people who didn’t want to integrate into French society and weren’t willing to change anything, moved to France. Thus they remained foreign with regard to French culture, language, religion, and everything else.

It’s the same with the European market, which instead of a common market became an actual market. Before implementing the concept of a “common market” they should have educated all the Europeans according to the integral approach so as to bring them all to one understanding, one culture, and some unified qualities, meaning a desire to cooperate mutually in order to summon the upper energy, the integral force of nature, upon them.

This didn’t happen and so they don’t know what to do now. The solution is the same solution as before and it’s still hanging in the air. They can do it now too, but not with the leadership that is currently in power.

If such a society is created it has to guard itself from the rest. This means that it has to develop a very wide working environment in integral education: “Welcome, you can join us, there is room for everyone, but only after you pass a course and certain training in integral education and begin to live, study and work according to this principle. Only then can you be members of our society.”
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From KabTV’s “The Integral World: The Formula of Integral Society,” 7/1/12

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