Question: What results from integral education workshops?

Answer: People begin to feel each other better and begin to reveal an integrated system that truly binds them together because we are in a system of the forces of nature that connect us. Until now, the principle of this system was, “who is faster, who is better, who is stronger, who is smarter,” and now it is interconnection. Interconnection makes people equal.

Today, you can be smart or rich or special in something, but, still, you do not succeed in life because success—content, happiness, a sense of a result—comes from the right interconnection. We must lead people to this.

They will begin to feel how interconnection, goodwill, a sense of common destiny, and a common movement give a person the fulfillment that makes him want to be in the team.
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From the KabTV’s “Personnel Secrets” 2/3/13

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Question: What is “round” egoism?

Answer: At present, all humanity has become a common globally interconnected system. Our dependence on each other is manifested in everything: in business, culture, communication, politics, and the economy. But we do not know how to work with it because we are small individual egoists. And now, as we are entering this new system, we do not understand its laws because we are transitioning from a linear, discrete system to an analog system.

In a discrete system, everything depends on me, on my actions, and in a mutually closed, interdependent system, little depends on me. It turns out that if I relate linearly, directly, discretely to my enterprise, business, I see myself dependent on many factors, which I cannot calculate.

That is why politicians, economists, and investors get together at all sorts of G8 and G20 summits and cannot find any viable solutions to continue a normal operation of the system. After all, the law, which we suddenly face in our development, became integral.

An analog system is different from a discrete system because all the factors in it are dependent on each other. But we cannot take into account such a volume of data because within ourselves we are not like that; we have not ascended yet to that level. That is why we have lost the reins, the steering wheel, the ability to manage, and the world around us becomes unmanageable; we do not know exactly where we are being carried. There is no clear entrance-exit; there are just some consequences that we have not foreseen. It is very difficult to live in such a world.

That is why it is necessary to think about how we can still adapt to this new state, a new system, in which we suddenly find ourselves. It is the next level of our development, which has never existed in human history. But now it is already a given.
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From KabTV’s “Personnel Secrets” 2/3/13

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Opinion (Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in economics and professor at Columbia University): “The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos has lost some of its pre-crisis panache. After all, before the meltdown in 2008, the captains of finance and industry could trumpet the virtues of globalization, technology, and financial liberalization, which supposedly heralded a new era of relentless growth. …

“Those days are gone. But Davos remains a good place to get a sense of the global zeitgeist.
“It goes without saying that developing and emerging-market countries no longer look at the advanced countries as they once did. But a remark by one mining company executive from a developing country caught the spirit of change. In response to one development expert’s heartfelt despair that unfair trade treaties and unfulfilled promises of aid have cost the developed countries their moral authority, he retorted: ‘The West never had any moral authority.’ Colonialism, slavery, the splintering of Africa into small countries, and a long history of resource exploitation may be matters of the distant past to the perpetrators, but not so to those who suffered as a result.

“If there is a single topic that concerned the assembled leaders the most, it is economic inequality. The shift in the debate from just a year ago seems dramatic: no one even mentions the notion of trickle-down economics anymore, and few are willing to argue that there is a close congruence between social contributions and private rewards.

“While the realization that America is not the land of opportunity that it has long claimed to be is as disconcerting to others as it is to Americans, inequality of opportunity at the global scale is even greater….

“The Associated Press organized a sobering session on technology and unemployment: Can countries (particularly in the developed world) create new jobs – especially good jobs – in the face of modern technology that has replaced workers with robots and other machines in any task that can be routinized? …

“Those suffering the most are the young, whose life prospects will be badly hurt by the extended periods of unemployment that they face today. …

“… If the euro was to survive in the long run, there would have to be a fiscal and banking union, which would require more political unification than most Europeans are willing to accept. …

“In the last 25 years, we have moved from a world dominated by two superpowers to one dominated by one, and now to a leaderless, multi-polar world.”

My Comment: It may seem that the world is better and more equal without strong leaders, but in the right system, there is always a hierarchy, as in the body, the one who is more caring and responsible is higher, as in the body, the brain and other vital organs that live not for themselves, but for the entire body.
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No one can tell me what I should do. I need to clarify this and to decide by myself which goal is fictitious and which goal is real. I have to take the responsibility for the steps I take. Otherwise, why was I given this life?

My life is like being in a middle of a swamp in which there are only a few places I can step on to cross it and not sink in. It has to be my decision. No one else can move my feet and put them in the right place.

If I slip, I will drown in the swamp of life for several decades. If this happens, I have to understand that it had to happen. I should do whatever is in my power to clarify everything in advance. If later I still make a mistake and drown for several decades, it is a sign that it had to have happened. I don’t know why and for what reason now, but I will find that out later. It is like it says about the direct and the indirect Providence, “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before”.

Question: How can I make my own decision if I am totally under the influence of the environment, in a spiritual society or an external one?

Answer: This is all your freewill—to be impressed by the spiritual society as much as you can and not to go around with “your nose up high,” considering yourself superior to everyone else. Otherwise you will not be able to be positively impressed by them.

But this doesn’t mean that you can come to the friends and ask them what you should do: whether to go abroad to make money or not. You mustn’t let others decide for you. Your decision has to be the result of you inner clarifications, the result of your efforts to subdue yourself before the society, which means before the spiritual idea, before the yearning for connection and unity, for advancement towards adhesion with the Creator above reason. This is what the society, the collective force, means to me. To the extent that you subdue yourself before the spiritual idea, you will decide what is important for you in life.

Then I look back and don’t see my body! It already disappears somewhere in my previous life, long since eliminated from my path. I have to provide it with some basic food and I do that. Basic necessities mean that I do something since I must, since I have to take care of the body. I force myself to think about my animal body, which is called a basic necessity. But in all my other thoughts I am in the group, in the connection, and then I make the right decision.

This connection sustains me and doesn’t let me leave. I am so strongly adhered to it that I can worry about some basic necessity only by forcing myself. We can test this by how happy I might feel if I didn’t have to take care of my body but could only worry about the group and the Creator 100%, not leaving even 1% for myself.

But when I begin to worry only about the basic necessities of my animal body, I suddenly realize that it isn’t mine! Then dealing with my body and my family become spiritual work. I felt that they were mine as long as I received some egoistic profit from them, but if I don’t receive any profit from these necessary dealings, it is simply a game that I was given, a means for spiritual clarification.
[100012]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In the News (from Popsci): “If you need an American to do something, don’t mention the common good, team work or caring for others. A new study in Psychological Science this month found that trying to get Americans to think and act interdependently failed-and may have even decreased motivation.

“After being prompted to think about either independence or interdependence, a group of Stanford students were given difficult word puzzles to solve, and later, a physical challenge (squeezing a handgrip for as long as possible).

“’Chronically independent European Americans’ fared much worse when primed to think about interdependence while completing the task. For bicultural Asian-American students exposed to both the independence-loving culture of America and a more communally based East-Asian culture, thinking about either value set was equally motivating.

“In another test, students viewed a website about a class promoting environmental sustainability. White American students said they would put less effort into the course when the description emphasized things like working together and taking other people’s views into account, rather than when it prioritized taking charge and being unique. …

“’Currently, if we want to inspire Americans to think and act interdependently, it may work best to actually emphasize their independence to motivate them to do so,’ suggests MarYam Hamedani, one of the study’s authors. ‘Tell them, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ instead of ‘We’re all in this together.'”

My Comment: Awareness of individualistic egoism will occur in the USA in an acute form. In advertising independence, freedom, competition, and individualism, the whole world will manifest the process of recognizing these trends as evil and the need to correct them and will force society to change it. A person must experience much stress and the realization of evil of his nature to begin to see the world connected in a single harmony, instead of focusing on each one separately.
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Some time before the last convention we began our preparation for the state of the spiritual “embryo” and we continue persistently.

This is the short-term goal for the major part of our global group. In the group there are more advanced students and less advanced ones, but the majority are in a state that they must prepare for the conditions of existing in the form of an “embryo” in the spiritual world.

It says that an embryo is part of his mother, which means that he totally annuls himself and “eats what his mother eats.” Mother clarifies what is best for him and he receives everything gratefully as something that comes from “there is none else beside Him.” He is completely incorporated in the Creator without taking any independent decisions. All his powers are focused only on how to follow with eyes closed.

This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have his own opinion and his own feelings, but he tries to resemble the upper in every way possible. He still has no inner “vessels,” not in his mind and not in his heart, which enable him to start working with such desires by himself. He can only rise above them.

This means that he has no “mouth,” but that he receives everything through the “Tabur” (the umbilical cord), which means straight into his “vessels.” A “Peh – mouth” (the mouth of the Partzuf) is the place of the Masach (screen), 32 teeth, 32 routes of wisdom. When he has teeth, he will already be able to chew with them, to examine, to divide, and to decide whether this filling is suitable for him or not, but in the meantime, all this does not exist in the embryo, and he receives everything thanks to the bestowal of Hassadim from his upper, from mother Bina, although he is in total darkness.

If we could imagine this state of Ibur (gestation) and see ourselves as an “embryo” with regard to the group, which means that we annul ourselves before the group, then by our collective effort we will enter the spiritual world.

This is a very high level. It is unlimited, since by the annulment of his vessels a person becomes independent and unlimited. He receives everything that comes to him and is ready for any condition. He accepts everything that comes to him from the upper “above reason,” and thus advances through all the months of pregnancy.

Everything depends on us, on our effort. We don’t have to wait for this to come from Above by itself. Nothing will come just like that except for sufferings that come along the path of “in its time” instead of along the path of “I shall hasten it,” the path of the Light.

But if we want to hasten this state so as not to develop according to the natural speed that will take many years before we attain it, we have to spur one another, as it says: “Every one shall help his friend.” We have to set an example of the spiritual embryo for one another, which means showing how each one annuls himself before the group and accepts everything gladly, enthusiastically, in elation, and in awakening. Although a person doesn’t feel it internally, he annuls himself before the upper.

This state is called an embryo since all this doesn’t match his desire, but is against it, in contrast to his feelings and his mind. But if he rises above himself, above his mind and feelings and begins to receive from the upper who is whole, he will advance and gradually become an embryo.

This state is built above the corporeal feelings and mind and is the first level that is built above them. In it we already have to clarify how to fulfill the advice of Kabbalists by mutual help, awakening, and feeling the importance of the goal. This is the immediate goal facing us.
[99962]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/13

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Question: Today, when life seems tasteless and humanity encounters endless problems, what can the wisdom of Kabbalah tell us about the meaning of life?

Answer: Kabbalah says that we can find the meaning of life only if we are adapted to nature. Then we will receive fulfillment, which is in fact the meaning of life.

So I can receive fulfillment if I am adapted to nature. The adaptation generates a connection, and then whatever is in nature is also found in me. I become the inner system that is connected to nature.

How can we connect to nature, to something that is whole, eternal, and great? It is only possible through the similarity of properties. The similarity of properties refers to being in bestowal and connection, just like the rest of nature is connected. The still, the vegetative, and the animate levels in nature are all connected to one system. But it’s as if man is left outside the system in order to connect to it by himself consciously, willingly, by making his own efforts in order to find the way to fit into it and become an integral part that completes the whole system, just like the last part in a jigsaw puzzle.

This is what we have to reach. To the extent that we approach this state, we will feel better since there is a whole life in the general picture of the puzzle.

So the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about how to receive, to gain, to make the best out of our life in which everyone suffers, and to move on to a better life.

This is fulfilled by connection. The connection depends on a person’s ability: There are people who are brought to high levels of spiritual connection and unity by their deficiency, and there are people are brought to the simple “common” connection by their desire and deficiency, but one way or the other, the future of the world is in connection. So everyone will surely find his own form and intensity of connection according to his internal attributes. The main thing is to complete the picture.

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us. So, it has nothing to do with religions and beliefs. If a person feels bad and connection seems the right solution for the world, if he feels internally that this it worth it, that it is good, beneficial, and desirable, then he will reach the wisdom of Kabbalah or the system of the integral education.
[99817]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: How does the Creator allow me to make mistakes? Doesn’t He want me to advance faster?

Answer: The Creator must open all the treasures of the Light for you. These treasures can be opened only by the depth of the desire that is attained in the dark. You have to feel your desires and to enter them. But if you really enter them and sink into them, there is no way you will be able to come out of them.

So the Creator’s work is to give you the vessels of receiving in their real form, completely separated from the Light. But if you remain totally disconnected, you will never be able to exit the abyss of your desire.

But if you are not immersed in them and are not included in these vessels of receiving that are totally opposite from the Creator, you will not be able to attain Him and will not be able to stand before Him as an independent entity.

Therefore, at every step of the way, you are left to stumble and fall slightly, and to go wrong a little. This “little” bit can be very severe, and at each stage there are very hard trials. But all this depends on how you were supposed to receive them according to the plan of creation.

If we could have received the whole Torah as we should have from Abraham onward (if we can say so in retrospect), then there would be no evil in the world. The whole world would advance in the best, most wonderful way towards correction.

The question is whether we could manage without the destruction of the First and Second Temples and without the four exiles at the end of which we are now. I don’t know how it could happen otherwise…perhaps all the corrections could take place in spiritual discernments.

We shouldn’t think about that now. Our job is to unite all the conditions that we were given—the Creator’s attributes and the created being’s attributes by the system of the Torah, and then we will reach correction.
[99803]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Is it typical in the formation of the group to have periods when the need for unity arises from lessons, workshops, conventions, or from participation in dissemination?

Answer: I know for myself that I was involved in one or another. All of a sudden I wanted to further explore the material, or to disseminate more, or to be engaged precisely in spiritual ascent, or in some “mundane” things like making the layout for books or preparing them for publication. A person always has these swings in different directions. We have to go through all of them. This is a natural period of our growing up, and then everything gradually comes into balance.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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Opinion (Michael Khazin, economist): “The feelings of the end of 2011 were optimistic. Everyone was confident that the crises would end in 2012. … But by the end of 2012, the situation began to change dramatically. The main example of that was the report of the U.S. intelligence community about the future of the world in 2030. The report itself is not crucial, what is important is that none of the reviewed scenarios considers the option of the U.S. dominance in that period. …

“It is not just an important event, it is in some ways a radical change in the conditions of human existence in the last 2000 years. … Since then, there was always a group of people who were ready to take responsibility for the entire humanity, offering universal “rules of the game.” Originally, they were built only on the basis of the Biblical values (Christian global projects and Islam), then, from the 16^th century, there were also projects that began to limit the Biblical value system (the global capitalist project). …

“Today, we see that the elite of the “capitalist” project … is ready to hold back and give up on imposing the rules of conduct and social behavior.

“But people in all the countries and regions are not ready to write rules for themselves. This means that they will be established spontaneously and not always peacefully and safely. …

“Unless someone takes responsibility again by proposing common rules. But there will be a problem because in any case this “someone” will have to be strong enough to explain to the nervous opponents that some things should not be done. …

“I think that it was namely the refusal of the elite of the “capitalist” project to dominate globally that became the main result of the previous year. …. The crisis that we faced was not only economic; it has already reached the systemic level.”

My Comment: For those who study Kabbalah, it is clear that with the destruction of connection with the upper world 2000 years ago, religion (the religious project) prevailed in the world, which was replaced during the time of Ari (the 16^th century, the beginning of correction of the world) with the economic project. All these are the stages of development of egoism that are manifested in the form of various “projects.”

In 1995, we actively entered the latest “project”—the correction of egoism, integral humanity, ascent to the upper stages of unity, bestowal, and love—unwillingly, through suffering, or knowingly, with joy. No one but Kabbalists wants and is able to lead us forward because we know the next states of humanity.
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