Question: At this time, what particular part of relationships between men and women is “impaired” by the crisis?

Answer: The crisis hits all levels: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. We are not paying attention to this fact, nor do we investigate it much. Our world outlook is not integral yet. We don’t understand what other spheres of life undergo the crisis except recognizing it in the human society, specifically in the financial and economic spheres.

However, the crisis does involve animals and plants, but in a way that we simply don’t notice. If not for the crisis, then why does a huge number of species vanish? Every day, as reported in the literature, several species become extinct.

Of course, the crisis is mostly noticeable in relationships among people; typically, we feel it through ourselves. Interaction among people is crucial and defining; we stopped understanding each other correctly and became internally detached; therefore, we now are incapable of finding common points of connection when solving any kinds of problems.

We make international plans and domestic policies, but then again we are the ones who break them and run around in circles.

Our growing egoism requires integral solutions, mutual interactions, common comfort, reciprocal involvement, and general connection between us; first, we should unite, and as a result of our unity there will emerge a new idea, a new tool for developing technology, economic, and finances. We don’t do this.

We do not unite, nor do we create new instruments for management that stem from our unity, that’s why there is no management whatsoever. We make new plans in education and upbringing that do not originate from our unity, and that’s why they do not work. We are the ones who create the surroundings that impact us: TV programs, movies, etc. that do not stem from our connection; thus, we tremendously damage the society we live in by splitting it even more and setting wrong values.

At all levels of life, the root of the problem is the human being. Instead of correcting this problem by changing people, we use our conventional methods; that is, we “enforce and encourage” by referring either to police or money; it is called “love and hunger rule the world.” However, this pattern doesn’t work any longer. Our egoism doesn’t react to it.

We could have treated our ego in a different way, as a bear in the circus that gets a spoonful of honey instead of sugar, but it’s not enough for our ego. The “bear” in us refuses to work under these conditions; it needs a totally different approach, a new system of interaction and governance, though we do not realize it yet. That’s why the crisis in fact is a misunderstanding of the system of forces within which we find ourselves.

Of course, the main thing is the family. The fact that the family is practically disappearing sets the example for a new generation; it doesn’t seem too terrible to us yet. “So what… Instead of seven billion people we’ll end up having only two. What’s wrong with it?” However, we don’t understand that it is not a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, people are becoming more and more like “barbarians,” they accept everything that happens around them without much ado.

At some point several centuries ago, we were considered barbarians, but it wasn’t actual barbarity, but rather our developmental stage. Today, we outgrew all possible cultural thresholds and acquired every cultural value, but once again we are turning into barbarians regardless of our values; it’s quite different—it’s degradation. So, at this point integral upbringing is simply indispensable.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/8/12

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Question: Presently, few people are attracted to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Should we expect awakening of new points in the heart as we continue to disseminate?

Answer: I have no precise answer to this question. I don’t want to determine things that were not written by the Kabbalists.

You should understand that some are strong by their quantity, others by their quality. It is said: “You are the few among the nations.” Even in the future there will be not very many people as friends in the groups throughout the world, nor will there be lots of supporters, the broader circles that are not oriented to the wisdom of Kabbalah since they don’t completely feel the same way we do, but who are close to us, who listen to us and follow us.

Our strength is not in numbers, but in the height, in understanding, recognition and connection with Godliness. Through us, as through the zigzag of the lightening, various recommendations, programs, event plans for broad auditoriums will come down from heaven to earth. Then, probably because there is no other choice, or because people will start believing us, or due to some other reasons, they will get used to and accept our message.

As Baal HaSulam said, if there is at least one who can see in the head of the column of blind people, they should follow him with complete confidence that they will eventually reach the goal. I don’t think that there will be serious changes here. We provide lectures, set up roundtables, open campuses; however, we do this not because we want to draw people into our organization. On the contrary, we have to work in “their territory” and transfer a general, common method of correction to them, rather than deliver to them our specifics.

“Screens,” “Lights,” “Vessels,” “Partzufim,” and “Restrictions” are not for them. People need to know about unity, which will ease their material life.

This is our message to the audience. We shouldn’t “inject” Kabbalah and “high matters” into them. We have to speak with people at “eye level,” according to the “pulse of their heart,” about something that worries them, about their “deficiencies” like the upbringing of children and other everyday problems. We should slightly accentuate their desires and show them that there is a tool that will “calm them down”—our methodology.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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In the News (from The Christian Science Monitor): “But for as long as there have been arts, people have wondered what effect violent content has on behavior. Plato wanted to keep young people away from intense plays, which he felt skewed proper character development. His student Aristotle disagreed, arguing that drama had a cathartic effect, channeling off anger and aggression. …

“Conclusion: Media violence poses a threat to public health inasmuch as it leads to an increase in real-world violence and aggression. Every category of violent imagery had an effect: fictional TV and film, TV news, video games.

“At the same time, recent neuroscience experiments appear to indicate that prolonged exposure to violent and aggressive imagery decreases inhibitions about actual violence and aggression. While all such research remains provisional, the preponderance of evidence does seem to side with Plato, not Aristotle.”

My Comments: Only the environment (the influence of all kinds of people and the media) brings up a person, develops in him a scale of values and the level of restrictions. That is why, once in a certain environment, people can no longer resist its influence and become like it.
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Question: There are several types of family interrelationships. For example, in Russia, families get together into communities and spend a lot of time together by virtue of common interests and mutual support. While in the West, “my family is my castle,” which is characterized by isolation. What will integral families be like, how will they look like?

Answer: I think that most of the time will not be spent within the family circle, but in a larger, more live communication among people because they will suddenly discover a great source of energy in that: revitalizing, uplifting, constantly improving, and just allowing one to be fulfilled by this world.

That is why integral families will begin to create very serious internal integral connections among each other. Furthermore, they will search for similar people in virtual space.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 8/7/12

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Question: With respect to the general public, our method should be the means by which they will be provided with basic needs such as food, safety, and health. How does it help them reveal the spiritual world?

Answer: They reveal the spiritual world more passively than we do.

We become connected with the upper one to bring the Light that Reforms and to resemble It. This Light we pass on, carrying the method of correction to people. And they perform only the necessary steps under our direction, not caring about the Light, and this practice of connection is enough to bring it to their environment. The Light will affect and advance them towards the understanding and feeling, and then they will want to receive it themselves to move towards unity and the revelation of the Creator, as it is written: “All shall know Me, young and old.”

Thus, we must carry the method of unity to the people so that they feel good. We cannot explain what “good” actually means; however, the Reforming Light lies in these activities, and due to It, people will move further and further in the interpretation of their benefit until they come to The Good and Who Does Good.

Question: How is it combined with people’s simple needs, for example, for cheaper food?

Answer: We explain how to unite so that food becomes cheaper. Of course, no one wants to unite, but this is the condition if we want to achieve something, and that is why a person pays this price. And then, continuing to act in the same direction, he discovers that unity is a treasure in itself: not as a tool to help you achieve something, but as a state. This is how the Light acts, giving us a new understanding.

So, we explain to people that united together they will have many advantages. Mutual support will instill in them a sense of security; their life will become better, safer, etc. Of course, you have to pay for it by a measure of personal convenience, by a share of your egoism, but it is easy and attractive with overall participation. The strength of the masses does the job. And then, having approached realization, people will see that it really brings them benefits, that the solution to the problems has been found.
There will be no repeating of the scenario of Soviet Russia or Israeli kibbutzim; the script of unity is just for the sake of a better life. After all, today we are engaged in the process, and only through our participation people come together so that it is good and useful for development. Suddenly, they will feel that unity attracts them because therein lies a higher root, a higher state, something that fills them with the spirit of life. So, they will go ahead.

Question: Where do we need to start our explanations to involve them in the process?

Answer: We need to develop an approach that would allow properly explaining to people that unity can greatly improve society, to achieve discounts and mutually beneficial exchange, learning to help each other, instead of paying someone money, etc. Someone will voluntarily take on a children’s club, others will also contribute, and we will be able to live a normal life without money, discounted by the crisis. We will feel the need for and the benefits of reciprocity.

Of course, without the Light that Reforms, not intending to unite seriously, people would “run away” after having used each other. But here, thanks to our leadership, people will feel the need for internal growth. Time after time, they will discover higher desires that require fulfillment, for the time being egoistic. And then, gradually, people will come to the altruistic intention from Lo Lishma to Lishma (not for Her name to Her name).

Thus, everyone goes through the same process; only their starting point lies below our point. We begin with the state of “Yisrael,” with the aspirations “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El), we have the urge to reveal the spiritual world. And they do not have this attraction, and that is why we have to pull them along, to be what is called the “Light for the nations.” We conduct the Light in the actions of unity, through which we train people. These actions benefit the people, and meanwhile, the Light hidden in them develops people.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Research (Cameron Anderson, psychological scientist of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science): “New research suggests that overall happiness in life is more related to how much you are respected and admired by those around you, not to the status that comes from how much money you have stashed in your bank account. …

“‘One of the reasons why money doesn’t buy happiness is that people quickly adapt to the new level of income or wealth. Lottery winners, for example, are initially happy but then return to their original level of happiness quickly,’ said Anderson.”

My Comment: Our essence is the desire to enjoy, no matter from what it comes, but among all the desires the highest one on the scale of pleasures, the most powerful and long-lasting is approval, respect, honor, fame. That’s why, in the integral community, the whole economy and the calculations will be based upon receiving non-monetary rewards and social approval.

The standard of living will be one and will be determined only by natural characteristics of each individual, and the reward for effort in bestowal to the public will be “paid” by the attitude of society towards a person; thus, competition will be many times more than the desire for material reward. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Last Generation.”
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In our daily life, we constantly use examples of what we see around us. In any situation, instantly, subconsciously or even consciously, I see an image from a movie or something else, and I recreate it. If I had not seen it, I couldn’t play. I would be at the level of an animal, only at the level of instincts. Anything that is higher than instinct is borrowed from outside, from the surrounding society from which we draw examples.

We should give a person such good examples, so that he knows in every moment how to behave in order to be brought to the connection with others, and only that. He should be provided with plenty of examples, and then he would play them: one example, the second, and the third one.

Indeed, we don’t behave otherwise. Every time, we play a role that we have seen somewhere and that has become a kind of model for us: the way I sleep, eat, talk, and stand. On my own, alone, no matter how, I always rely on these external examples.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/8/12

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An integral family is the system of bringing people closer to each other. This is not just an ordinary relationship of two people who do not have integral knowledge and who begin to interact at a natural, animal level that subsequently leads to their marriage.

Indeed, in that case, they do not understand why they want to be together. It is possible that, if they had learned more about each other, they would have understood that, in principle, they do not match each other.

It is not for nothing that fortune telling is so popular nowadays. We do not really know how to approach each other. People are turning to psychologists, to healers, and to all sorts of techniques. In the old days, grannies and nannies explained all that quietly, and that was enough.

Today, with our developed ego, in our spoiled society, we certainly need support and training so that we can learn how to interact with each other correctly, and, in general, to understand whether we can become partners. The institution of marriage is now crashing and going deep “underwater,” dissolving so that only memories of it remain; it is a consequence of that fact that we are running integral education and upbringing in the family circle.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/18/12

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Question: If we say that the books that we publish should actually be of assistance in the transition to the next level, then what should be the nature, for example, of economic and other articles?

Answer: While we might find it difficult without the help of experts to give some exact, next steps for further development and to explain how integrality in the world can immediately influence the solutions for the economic, financial, industrial, organizational, commercial, international, problems, etc., at least we can show the general lines of the message of nature and the need to search for solutions to these problems through connection and unity.

Then, if not today, then shortly, experts will see that everything is really integrated and resolvable specifically in this way. And this undoubtedly will happen. We can prescribe the solution for all individual problems of humanity that stand in front of the simple man and also for the entire international society. We will be able to gradually do this. As a result, the practical means to address the general crisis of the entire civilization will emerge.

Question: Is it possible to say that the main idea of each article should be the transition through our unity from a linear society to an inclusive, circular one?

Answer: Yes, since if one looks from perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we enter a system that is “circular,” to a system of correction that is not the linear, human ego, but a system which includes others and by that creates together with them a society. Through the neutralizing of his ego, by ascending above it, a person begins to connect to others and to create, together with them, one complete whole. Any movement should be directed specifically at this.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/31/12

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Question: We condemn the ego as the source of all our problems, but actually what is wrong with worrying about yourself? After all it is our basic natural attribute?

Answer: We should understand that if you constantly worry only about your self-benefit, you are actually harming yourself and limiting yourself in succeeding.

Here hides the evil that a person should feel to its full depth. Indeed, there are people who want to “exit themselves,” their limitations. They aspire to “exit the body,” to expand their horizons and to see the world, “what is it for and why? What else is there outside this life?”

This urge isn’t typical of everyone, but today when the whole world is suffering we should explain to people that the only way to be saved from the troubles is to strongly tie yourself to the environment. If you don’t do that the relations in the family, the country, and the world are destroyed; no one enjoys anything and everyone suffers.

The main thing is that because of these corrupt relations we cannot even provide ourselves food. The food systems, the climate, everything is destroyed. It is the same in the family where the relations are corrupt and nothing works anymore.

Question: But why should I stop caring about my wellbeing because of all that? All the creatures in the world try to feel good and to take care of themselves. Is this basic desire the source of all our problems, for example, family problems?

Answer: Suppose things don’t work in the family. The refrigerator is half-empty, there is a pile of dirty clothes and everything has gone wrong. By the way, the same thing is happening in the world—the lack of good mutual relations destroys everything. One part of humanity throws tons of food in the garbage, and the other part is starving. Billions are wasted on health care, but we are all suffering from some illness.

Clearly, this cannot go on. Therefore, a married couple that is ready for change comes to our courses, and we explain to them that the concern one feels for himself should change to concern for others, and in this case to the spouse.

“Love covers all sins,” this principle is fulfilled egoistically. No one is asking a person to detach himself from his ego, but only to establish a new attitude above it towards what is on the outside, towards one’s spouse, towards other people, towards the world, towards nature, towards the environment, etc.

We must perceive the world as “round,” as integral, which means to start perceiving everything that is outside your ego as your own, like a mother taking care of her child, then you will feel good.

The whole idea is to use your ego correctly and wisely, not to get rid of it. A couple that wants to succeed egoistically continues to adhere to this. Only the approach changes: Considering what is going on in the world and in the family, there is only one method—to rise above your ego and to use it in the opposite direction. Examine your spouse like a mirror of your own attributes and accordingly operate the ego in the opposite manner. Then instead of the evil inclination, it will appear as the good inclination.

The main point here is to create an “incubator,” which means the right environment. No special efforts will be needed by a person if he lives in this “green house.” By its influence, the environment will raise the concern for others in his eyes and lead him in the right direction. Then this approach to life will become natural for him. In the same way a child readily accepts the morality of his group. Yes, there are difficulties: For example, married couples need “redesigning.” But these changes will be relatively easy and pleasant like recovering in a sanatorium.

Of course, a person must also participate in the process, in his feeling and understanding, of his own free will. His support is essential, he cannot just come and say “change me.” but one way or the other, he can certainly agree and nothing super-human is required of him.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/11/12

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