In the News (Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s Deputy Director of Education, from OECD Education Today):  “OECD’s PISA [Project for International Students Assessment] study shows that there is also a significant negative relationship between the money countries extract from national resources and the knowledge and skills of their school population (see figure)…this is a global pattern that generally across 65 countries that took part in the latest PISA assessment. Exceptions such as Canada, Australia and Norway, that are rich of natural resources but still score well on PISA, have all established deliberate policies of saving these resource rents, and not just consuming them. Today’s learning outcomes at school, in turn, are a powerful predictor for the wealth and social outcomes that countries will reap in the long run.

“One interpretation is that in countries with little in the way of natural resources – other examples are Finland, Singapore or Japan – education has strong outcomes and a high status at least in part because the public at large has understood that the country must live by its knowledge and skills and that these depend on the quality of education. So the value that a country places on education seems to depend at least in part on a country’s view of how knowledge and skills fit into the way it makes its living. Placing a high value on education may be an underlying condition for building a world-class education system and a world class economy, and it may be that most countries that have not had to live by their wits in the past will not succeed economically and socially unless their political leaders explain why, though they might not have had to live by their wits in the past, they must do so now.

“The most troubling implications of these data relate to the developing world. Many of the countries with below-average GDP succeeded to convert their national resources into physical capital and consumption today, but failed to convert these into the human capital that can generate the economic and social outcomes to sustain their future.

“In short, knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st century economies. But there is no central bank that prints this currency, you cannot inherit this currency and you cannot produce it through speculation, you can only develop it through sustained effort and investment by people and for people.”

My Comment: Kabbalah states that the desire is at the heart of nature, and all of life is its development, realization and correction. And if the desire is prevented from developing, it feels its sufficiency and a person does not develop. He who increases knowledge, increases sorrow, but he who does not feel sorrow, does not multiply knowledge.
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Question: What is the meaning of “to enjoy being connected with others”? How can we explain it?

Answer: It is impossible to explain since we do not sense it in our world. To enjoy being connected with others means to reveal the force that exists between us.

Currently it exists in the egoistic form, in its opposite; now I can enjoy being above others, being better than others, that I look positive in their eyes, have their respect, etc. For this I work all my life. Besides the things required for fulfillment of the animate existence, everything else I do is only for the purpose to look great in the eyes of other people and to have their respect and honor.

If not for this pressing necessity of my egoism, I would buy one pair of pajamas and wear it my whole life since it’s the most comfortable. I would wear slippers all my life and would live my life the way that is most comfortable for me without concern about my neighbors. I wouldn’t care about any extras since I wouldn’t be receiving from any attitudes and values from the outside world about jewelry, hairstyles, cars, etc. I would not have any needs except for the corporeal ones.

If we were able to develop just the spiritual needs, leaving only the requirements for our animalistic, physical needs we would pretty quickly achieve the revelation of the next rung of our development, meaning our next level.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of the Integral Society” 2/5/12

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There cannot be equality and justice in our world since we are not equal to begin with. So why do we have complaints about different people if nature itself made us so different? Why do we aspire for equality if it is against nature?

One percent of the rich control 35% of total wealth. 10% of humanity is composed of geniuses, the hardworking, and the talented, and it has always been that way! Regardless of geographical location, no more than 20% of people are wealthy. This phenomenon is known as “the Pareto principle.” In addition, even within the upper 20% of society there is the upper 20%, and so on. Ultimately, whoever is on the top of society has the greatest control and is most influential. It is only natural that this phenomenon is contrary to the “average” scale of the Gaussian distribution.

We shouldn’t think that it is a result of our egoism; rather, we should understand that we don’t create this relationship by ourselves, but receive it from nature. It is the same in the spiritual Partzuf (the soul), where a tiny amount (we also say 20%, as Rabash coined it, although it is much less than that) goes to the filling (Toch of the Partzuf), and all the rest remains empty (Sof of the Partzuf), to such an extent that instead of a circle we only fill a thin line (Kav Ein Sof).

But in that line, according to the level of the connection of individuals, a process of integration begins (groups), and then on the “beastly” level everyone receives according to their reasonable needs, while all the upper fulfillment takes place in the collective desire. Therefore, the question of control and distribution never comes up!

But in our world it is naïve to demand equality and justice because inequality and  injustice are predetermined by nature, in order to force us to rise, in order for us to correct this natural inequality on the “human” level.
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Question: What is balance between the force of receiving and the force of bestowal?

Answer: We see this balance within our body and in different systems that exist in nature. It determines our health, the balance of climatic conditions, and social and economic systems.

Balance means health. However, it is possible on all levels: On the inanimate level, it provides us with calmness; on the vegetative and the animate levels, it provides us with health. Balance is always dynamic, from small to large. It is necessary to always see the levels.

For example, in the development of an apple, it goes from a small balance to ever-greater balance, until it ripens completely. However, on all of the previous levels, the apple was in some kind of partial balance. When the deficiency relative to the next state was revealed, it developed more and more. This is how the process of development works.

Therefore, we need to see what we can do now in order to bring ourselves into balance if today the current state of humanity is like spoiled fruit.

What force are we missing for balance? We see that it is necessary to add the force of bestowal to the force of our egoism. If we balance these two forces, we will live in peace, in good health, in a harmonious family, and in a good world. This is the only thing that we are missing.

It is only possible to arrive at the force of bestowal through a correct environment that teaches everyone how to reach it. It will help him personally in his private life, as well as in the society, and then all of humanity and our entire civilization.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 12, 1/10/12

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We hope that the knowledge you’ll obtain from the integral education course will help you understand all aspects of life, more so than you think. Let’s talk about the force of bestowal that we want to obtain and what it gives us. Bestowal constitutes help, attention, inclusion to the point of love, which is the greatest force of all. A person can develop all of these qualities by building a correct environment, which will constantly show him an example and thereby change him.

Throughout the course of evolution we’ve developed through the force of egoism that pushes us forward. This force develops the desire to receive pleasure in us, due to which we strive toward knowledge, power, and domination. We feel jealous of others and want to obtain everything they have. And this is how we develop. On account of this force, we acquire knowledge about this world; we get comfortable in it and even begin to control it. The problem is that without balancing our egoistic force with the force of bestowal that exists in nature, we constantly exist under the influence of a destructive force of egoism. After all, if we only strive toward receiving, then we bring our environment, our society, and all people to an imbalance.

If we look at our development, we see that during the first part of our lives starting from birth, we receive all knowledge about the world from our parents or from people that are closely connected to our upbringing. In our teens, we continue to receive examples of how to behave and settle into life from our educators. When we enter into an adult life, we continue learning the art of living in this world from our environment and from our own experiences. And then we can stand firmly on our feet, armed with the strength and knowledge that we’ve received in our childhood and teenage years, and we begin teaching others. When we have our own children, we teach them and prepare them for life.

This is the way that people have always developed. It’s clear to us that without knowledge of this world we won’t be able to survive in it. The more we know about this world and the more we apply this knowledge, the greater will be our success. Ultimately, our success depends on our knowledge of this world. So, we try to pass this knowledge on to our children so that it provides them with the strength to live. After all, the quality of life depends on the amount of knowledge.

But after developing for several thousand of years, in the last 50-60 years we suddenly began to notice that our egoistic growth under the desire to receive and take everything with no regard for others or nature is coming to an end. We can’t continue advancing this way, especially since we’re trying to understand, feel and delve deeper into this world. We see that our strength isn’t sufficient enough. We only are destroying ourselves, our surroundings, and ultimately all of nature. This is why we ask ourselves more and more about the force of love and bestowal, which we are seemingly missing.

In reality, this tremendous force of Mother Nature rules the entire world and it actualizes our development. Our development occurs due to the force of bestowal. Just as we act in relation to our children, so does Mother Nature act in relation to all of us. We are lacking this force of bestowal. We only use it and receive everything from it, but we don’t resemble it at all. And when we think about ourselves, about the essence of our existence, about our development and the process we undergo, then we realize that we have to reach some goal because all of nature’s development has some sort of a purpose.

If we wish to know this goal then we must understand nature better, examine it, and understand the forces that operate within it. Then we might actually understand what’s happening to us and how to develop further in order to obtain a truly good life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 12, 1/10/12

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Opinion (Sylvie Brunel, writer, geographer, Liberation, France): “For five centuries, the world has lived under the domination of Europe, which imposed its ‘universal’ values, democracy, human rights, human equality, right to development.

Today the world looks at the decline of the West and claims the right to rewrite history of subordination to the West. Through violence (colonization, slave trade), Europe has imposed its supposedly universal values to prove its supremacy, but begot only beggars and outcasts.

“The homeless are beggars, single-parent families, all those who struggle to find their place in an individualistic and materialistic world. Outcasts are foreigners, old people, condemned to loneliness.

“What is civilization in which one finds his place only as if he is in the prime of life, physically attractive, fit, well off, and male?

“Africans consider it unacceptable the way we treat the elderly. Muslims make fun of our criticism of polygamy, but our men make polygamy a norm de facto.

“Asians are stunned by how the individual can put greed above the interests of the group.

“There is more solidarity between slum dwellers than between developed states, drowning in bureaucracy.

“Inequality has exploded. The work has been devalued against the omnipotence of money and return on capital.

“Barbarism is bursting from us when we fight against those who practice neither our language nor our religion, conduct ‘just’ wars, which cause only chaos and violence, wars for oil and access to the sources of energy in Africa.

“The West, sure of its success, is everywhere, with impunity trampling on the value of those people whom supposedly it came to civilize.

“How dare we say that one civilization is superior to others if it is built on arrogance, xenophobia, conquest, domination and exclusion?”

My Comment: Of course, Western civilization, as the most egoistically advanced and developed, has conquered the whole world and imposed its own values. But the rest of the world is not a good example to follow. It is time for the development of a new civilization: universal and integral, when all nations, while remaining in their own cultures, for the sake of survival unite above all the differences in order to be similar to Nature.
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Question: What is the importance of a person’s appearance in an integral world? Should a person look good?

Answer: Of course: “A person needs to be beautiful in every way.” Are you familiar with this saying? But in reality things are far from this. Look at the modern culture. Where do you see beauty? We “swallow” whatever mass media “feeds” to us, and they only care about selling us things; they change a few things, to make us start buying and spending faster. In reality this has nothing to do with beauty, aesthetics, or design.

Look at “contrived” fashion which has nothing new to create, so the same fashion returns every twenty years. But by then we don’t have any twenty-year-old things left. In other words, everything revolves around business, and it’s not the feeling of aesthetics or beauty that drives us, but the “feeling of the beauty of money” of certain magnates who instruct the courtier: “Give us something new; people no longer are buying the old stuff.” You know how this works. And then it’s all promoted to you and they convince you that you do not look pretty without it.

Of course all of this will gradually go away, the crises will even everything out, and “high fashion” will disappear. We will experience such hardships that nothing will be left of the fashionable consumer goods. A person will have a normal attitude towards the world, life. His brain will “change.” He will understand that he lives in a very serious world and he can attain eternity, perfection, so he will not waste his life on dressing his “animal” better, constantly buying it things, and fulfilling unnecessary desires: for wealth, fame, power, knowledge.

I think humanity will realize this very fast. They will only have the aspiration to attain the meaning of life; they will have this question. And other than finding the answer to this question, they will also be able to attain the meaning of existence and see it for themselves.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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Question: There was a series of teenage suicides in Russia. People are lost; they don’t understand what is happening. How can we explain this phenomenon?

Answer: These “epidemics” will be recurrent. Right now it is teenage suicide, then something else, then another thing, and so on. What is this connected to? Teenagers, both boys and girls have a period when they do not fully perceive this life. They see it as something virtual that exists between this world and that one. At this time they are very sensitive to any bumps, which can even end in such a tragic way.

Teenagers do not feel death; they don’t feel the end. They are a bit above our world, somewhere in the air, and this is the way they treat the possibility of ending their life so tragically. Psychologists, sociologists, teachers, and educators know this. This needs to be eradicated as much as possible, teenagers access to the Internet should be limited, and we need to have a very precise government campaign regarding the “safety” of the soul.

I don’t think that these cases will decrease or disappear. On the contrary, their number will continue to grow because our egoism keeps growing and there is no answer to it, and it turns out that the person finds himself lost between the earth and the sky. Moreover, teenagers regard adults as the example of their future lives, and they completely disagree with this kind of life. They don’t even care that this life is financially provided for, they don’t like this life.

This is why many problems await us in the future. They will continue to exist in even darker states until we manage to unravel before them the full palette of the shining upper world that they can reach. This will be the part of the population which suffers most, which is susceptible to drugs, prostitution, and different problems. Now unemployment is adding to these problems, which also lead to very different problems; for example: Universities are closing, which means that the future is also disappearing. Young people do not see anything but hopelessness before them.

Why are there revolutions in North African countries? Many young people, including educated people who have graduated from universities in Europe, are returning home to Tunisia, Libya, Spain, and Italy and don’t know what to do since these countries are on the verge of an enormous crisis. Youth will be the part of the population, which suffers most everywhere; it doesn’t have a future.

The main thing for the other layers of the population is to exist in a relatively comfortable manner, but the youth don’t have this, it’s not enough for them, and they naturally will not settle. We need to think about the way to make them realize that there is a way to enter a different dimension, which will give them absolute fulfillment. If we present our method in the correct manner, people will want to bring it to life because it gives the person an opportunity for balance, an ability to become fulfilled regardless of work and corporeal commodities. Minimal necessities will be enough for them, and they will attain everything else by integrally participating in the environment.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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In the News (from RightWorld.net): “Young Europeans with higher education are going overseas to seek employment, most likely in Argentina. The economic crisis, whose end is nowhere in sight, forces them to leave. Only a few years ago, Spain attracted thousands of Latin Americans who were moving to the Iberian Peninsula in search of a better life.

“Today, many young Spaniards move overseas. However Argentina, where European professionals can still find a suitable job relatively easily, also attracts Italians, Frenchmen, Brits and even Germans. They arrive on student or tourist visas. The only drawback is the fact that once in three months they have to visit neighboring Uruguay to get their passports stamped and thus extend their visas. The majority of new immigrants admit that they dream of returning to their homeland; they just do not know when it will happen.”

Comment: The world increasingly looks like the labor market, where millions of people are rushing in search of work. But this happens just to mix people further, blend their mentalities, and bring them closer to each other. Then, when all the “bubbles” burst and only necessary production remains with a billion unemployed individuals, people will understand that their correction, learning a new integral life, is their new job, their work on themselves, on the mistakes of nature. And meanwhile, nature leads us to greater communication and mutual understanding by the path of suffering.
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Question: How important is the convention in Europe and how is it connected to the global state on the continent?

Answer: Throughout hundreds of years, Europe had considered itself the “beacon” of humanity. It conquered the world, defeated it, colonized it, and subjugated it, wanting to show the whole world that this is the way to behave. In this, Europe saw the future of humanity.

The result was quite the opposite; a good and bright future awaits neither Western nor Eastern Europe. And now the rest of the world, Asia, Africa, and so on will gradually be presenting their claims to Europe because the rest of the world was working for Europe.

If Europe wants to position itself correctly relative to itself as well as to the rest of the world in the way that the next few years will not boomerang back at it, it must turn to the new integral society as soon as possible, to introduce it there and to attract the rest of humanity to it. This is how it will show that its future lies precisely in this.

If Europe would do this, then naturally it would have a future and the rest of humanity will aspire towards it because it will correspond to the laws of nature.

However, if it does not start to do that, then this will be its general ruin. Very quickly, we will see how there will practically be nothing left of the Eurasian continent, possibly including even Russia. Meaning, that Europe, relative to the rest of the world will become the same as Africa is to Europe today.

This can happen very soon since the economy and society are very fragile and so integrally connected to each other that if there is a breakdown in one place, like there is now in the European Union, then it simultaneously affects all of the countries on different levels. Everything can collapse like a house of cards.

Europe must understand and realize that its future is in homeostasis with nature, in balance with nature, in the study of the nature’s trend. This is precisely what it should correspond to.

This is what the science of Kabbalah teaches: our integral society and mutual guarantee, the essence of which we are trying to explain to everyone. That is why our convention must be dedicated to this question, and also to working out how to address Europe.

We must be ready for the protest movements and demonstrations, which will be happening in all countries.

Now, the groups of North America are systematically passing out flyers with our comprehensive explanations and we see how the society is starting to apprehend it, feel it, and is demanding further explanation and bringing us towards various kinds of joint actions and so on.

We have to do the same in Europe. We need to prepare a package of explanatory material in advance, which must be properly prepared, well written and stated beautifully considering the different European languages and mentalities of each country. We need to seriously work on this in advance.

Introducing the masses to the system of integral education is the most important thing we can do in Europe.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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