Entries in the 'Mutual Guarantee Movement' Category

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The Uniqueness Of The Integral System

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When I encounter the law of mutual guarantee and see it in action, I immediately begin to monitor others so that they won’t drill a hole in the boat, and I purely egoistically point out that they shouldn’t be doing this.

Answer: With a corrected, altruistic approach, I act differently. I say to myself: “They are all ideal, I can be absolutely sure of them. I only have to monitor myself so I complete them correctly.”

If I behave correctly within the integral scheme, the entire scheme will be correct. It’s a reverse implication of the same law, where each is responsible for all. If, while existing within an integral system, I behave correctly, I oblige the entire integral system to do so as well. If someone breaks the law, the entire system fails.

Engineering has examples of various systems, among them an integral one. There is a discrete system with a strictly defined beginning and end, where all the working parts communicate with each other through impulses. And then there is a system which gets aroused by a signal it receives, then calms down, comes to a state of balance, and only after that can one measure its output as a solution to a problem. This is the so-called integral, analog system.

A disturbance and, naturally, an averaging, a calming down take place in such systems. You wouldn’t be able to observe any results until everything calms down and arrives to a common denominator, to a solution.

At first, when you give a signal, you, say, bring an egoistic environment into a perturbed state. Then correction takes place: Gradually, a balance between absolutely all parts of the system is achieved; the system calms down. And then you measure the potential that results from its connection. If we talk about the human society, then the achieved result is accepted by everyone uniformly, equally, and kindly; everyone tries to uphold this very state because it is the most comfortable for everyone.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/11

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Who Will Save The Drowning?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the mid-1960’s, there was an incident in Paris when a person drowned in a pool in front of 150 eyewitnesses because nobody came to the rescue. Had there been only one person there, he or she would have saved him, but now it’s as if the responsibility was diluted among 150 people. Hence the law that the more people there are, the less responsibility each of them has personally. How can we make this law integral?

Answer: What does “mutual guarantee” mean? I am responsible for everyone. The general and the particular are equal in their power and influence—this is what the law of global guarantee implies.

If within the final integral system (and we take it as a starting point of any explanation) even one tiny particle is missing—me, you, or him—it won’t be able to function. It won’t be able to operate at the full 100%. It will break down not by 99% or 50%, but by the entire 100% because an integral system implies the participation of absolutely everybody.

Ultimately, the law is such that one is equal to all, one is important for everyone. There isn’t anyone who could wiggle out of this, opt not to participate.

In the integral education we present a simple example: We (all of humanity) are in one big boat. If I drill a hole under myself in the bottom of the boat, everybody drowns. I may say: “I’m sorry, friends, this is my personal business. I want to drown. Or I want to take a bath. That’s it. This has nothing to do with you. What right do you have to enter my territory and admonish me or order me around?!”

If we exist within the framework of one law of nature—in the same boat, like in Noah’s Ark. If someone drills a hole there, we will all drown.

So it follows that responsibility cannot be distributed among everyone. For each person it is the same responsibility as for everyone else! That’s why each person who stands around the pool and sees that someone is drowning must imagine that if I don’t take any action, then no one will. And then everyone would plunge into the water.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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All For One And One For All!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Could you shed more light on the concept of “mutual guarantee”? What do you mean by it?

Answer: The purpose of creation of the universe is to bring it to homeostasis. The endpoint of the development of any given subsystem is to balance all systems. It follows from the research of the still, vegetative, and animal nature: all these levels strive towards equilibrium.

Why does the wind blow? The pressure in one place is higher than in another. Any unbalanced physical parameters ultimately strive for balancing, for averaging out, for mutual interconnection and permeation. All levels of nature are supported by each other: plants, minerals, animals, and so on; they all exist in constant mutual circulation.

The last degree of nature called “Adam” or Man (the overall joint image) needs to incorporate all the previous levels into itself. Human beings have to reach such a collective state, reciprocity in connection, where precisely they will be the ones who’ll be determining the entire correct global structure of nature, its harmony. A person needs to attain this through understanding, realization, and study of this picture.

We need to study the integral systems in which everything is interconnected: beginning, end, middle, and center. There’s no single thing that would determine something, but everyone and everything determines all the rest. It’s like a holographic picture, and our universe, as well as practically any of its fragments, including ourselves, are arranged according to this principle.

This is why our final state is characterized by the fact that everyone is responsible for everyone else. All for one and one for all! And this applies to the entire humanity.

This picture, of course, seems like a fantasy, completely opposite to our reality of today. Our desire or reason simply don’t function in that direction. But nature will compel us to that. Starting with our time and going forward, we are entering a crisis that’s determined precisely by our lack of balance, our incorrect interconnection with each other.

Therefore, starting with a small group, with this vision of the future, we are obliged to constantly set this condition before ourselves. Regardless of how we name this future system, even if it’s “communism,” nevertheless it’s the most stable system intended by nature. And it will be attained since this is the state of equilibrium.

Now a question arises: “How do we present it to people? What does mutual guarantee mean?”

Even now, we see from the example of the EU, which is not able to unite, that the absence of integral upbringing and education doesn’t allow them to correctly view the situation they’re in. They constantly choose egoistic, linear solutions instead of “round” ones. They constantly relate to themselves as a discrete and not an analog system. Therein lies their problem. This is why all of their resolutions won’t lead anywhere.

This will be a very lengthy disintegration, maybe even a world war. Or, perhaps, as a result of suffering they will gradually come to a right decision because there are people already who talk about the necessity of absolutely complete unity.

But can complete unity of 27 countries be reached?! Even if you limit them to ten countries, it still is an enormous division along all parameters. Therefore, upbringing is necessary.

Upbringing, its foundation and expected goal, is what we call an integral mutual interaction or universal guarantee, when we vouch for and are responsible for one another and create our society precisely in this manner. Fears disappear. Concerns disappear. I know exactly what I need to do in society. I am absolutely confident that I will receive the same thing as everyone else. I am confident that I will have everything that is necessary for life.

In this manner we neutralize any problems that might arise in some social perturbations. Surely, this is an ideal picture, so we need to come to it gradually.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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Introductory Lecture: The Mutual Guarantee

Dr. Michael LaitmanComplete Transcript of the Introductory Lecture: “The Arvut – Mutual Guarantee”

We are going through some very rough times in the life of our country. The problem is that today people around the world, not just people in our country, do not know how to solve the problems that have risen. But the solution suddenly comes in the form of the people; this happens in different countries, and now we can observe this in Israel.

We do not yet know whether this is an epidemic of some sort or on the contrary, a certain good wave, which will bring the world to order. But people, living in different places around the globe, feel the urge to go outside and express their wishes and hopes.

This happens because for a very long time now, almost sixty years, there has been a tendency around the world, which points to the supposed end of our entire history: The world is becoming submerged in crises, which manifests in every area of people’s lives.

People are no longer able to create a normal family; this leads to the multitude of divorces, children not able to live with their parents, leave their parents’ homes early, and use drugs and alcohol. But the crisis does not only manifest in the family unit, it encompasses society, industry, economy, the education system, culture, and even science. Scientists themselves are stating that science has come to a dead end and cannot develop further. We really seem to have hit a wall.

Over the course of thousands of years, we developed from one generation to another with the assumption that our children will have a better life. We suffered, as it were, for our children in hope they would be happy. Our love for them forced us to develop and work hard sacrificing ourselves. But now none of this exists; today we are no longer convinced that they will have a better life than we did. This is why people no longer want to have and raise children: Who needs it and why? What will this unfortunate child be born for, to see this complicated and meaningless life?

And the understanding of the fact that there is no meaning or purpose to it literally penetrates our brain. We do not see a solution; we cannot find an answer. It is as if mankind were suffocating in their inability to somehow move. And the entire world feels this.

But the main thing is the financial and economic crisis because the common crisis manifests in it. After all, economy connects the entire world into a single net. Industrial, commercial, and interbank relations: These are the imprints of our desires and aspirations. In other words, our relationships are essentially measured with money. What can you do? Such is the world. This is why a crisis in economy is a special sign.

At the same time we reveal that our world has become small. Literally within 24 hours, a person can find himself in the most remote place without feeling much of a difference besides for the mentality of the people, which he can gradually become accustomed to. Things are approximately the same everywhere, everyone is connected with one another; people seem to lose their individuality. Besides the fact that the world has become small, all of its parts ended up being tightly connected with one another. And that led to special results: We saw that we depend on one another. For example, when something happens somewhere in Japan, the entire world suffers. And the same is true of the US, Europe, and any other place.

Everyone mutually affects one another. We cannot even imagine what would happen if the US were to declare fiscal default. And in general, can we even wrap our minds around it? The Common Market could fall apart in Europe, and this would naturally affect the entire world. Briefly speaking, we live in an unpredictable world, and on one hand, this causes pressure in society, but on the other hand, people are becoming indifferent towards whatever is happening, since they are not able to change anything anyway.

This indifference comes from the same connection that exists between all of us, because we all depend a lot on one another. But we did not build these connections; simply, the world has suddenly closed in on us. It was separated into a multitude of pieces, and suddenly it became closed in, suddenly we have become like a unified mankind on the globe, one family, and we depend on one another. This is a very big problem.

Today scientists, who study human nature, political and social scientists, already clearly see that we really exist in mutual total dependence to such an extent that no one can escape it. Scientists already started coming to these conclusions in their studies 50-60 years ago. But only recently every one of us started to actually experience it.

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When The Upper One Lifts You Up In His Arms

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During yesterday’s lesson, I felt a great heaviness. Afterward, I went outside and I was so lost that for a long time I didn’t understand where I was. How is it possible to go through and process states like these?

Answer: Indeed you know that we must go through spiritual birth. Birth is complete reversal, like a revolution. A person has to go through a certain number of states through which he acquires a new vision: He sees everything in a usual way, like others, and together with this, he sees the other side, as well, the reversal. And this is what happens not only once, but several times.

He has to get used to detaching himself from his animal nature and existing without perceiving the world through his body. It is not mysticism but special work that we let the Light perform on us. We don’t know when we will fall into these states; it is difficult to predict and locate them in advance. But it happens in order to give you enthusiasm, a feeling that it is possible to see the world in a way not according to what you are used to.

If a person works intensively with authentic books, attracts to himself the Light that reforms, and tries to connect with the group, then he goes through states like these. There is nothing special or dangerous about this. It doesn’t cause any unwanted results, but it is done only in order to accustom the person to see the world and all of reality in an objective manner.

The objective manner is the same form that I clothe. Objectiveness in itself doesn’t exist. Even the Creator, as it seems, is not objective, since He sees everything by way of bestowal, while we now see everything through our egoism. But in order to teach us to see reality from two points of view, they are transferred to us through exercises like these.

In our corporeal world there is no “division” like this since we never leave this one world, which operates according to the principles of egoistic reception. Thus it is impossible to explain to someone that there can be another perception. They see it as sophisticated psychology.

But with us it happens in a materialistic way, since we change our substance with others. When the reforming Light operates on a person, it gives him a foundation that is called the desire to bestow. And the person already begins to see the world through this desire.

And in the meantime, it happens not only at the expense of the person himself, but also simply teaches him, shakes him up a little, and awakens him, like a grown-up who lifts a baby in his arms and the child suddenly sees a new world from above. One that is big and wide. He, himself, asked that he be lifted and held up in order to feel grown up like everyone, and even more than that, since everything becomes visible in front of him.

But does he deserve this height? No, we are those who lift him and want to show him that something else exists besides the childish perception, in order to awaken a desire and urge in him to attain it.

And the exercises of this kind are sometimes given to us from above, with the help of the surrounding Light. Usually they happen suddenly. In these exercises there are sometimes states that are incomprehensible to us, and thus they aren’t pleasant and they confuse us to a great degree. The person totally doesn’t understand how it all can turn upside down and is alarmed because he doesn’t know what is happening to him.

They simply want to show you now that there are other forms of perception that exist, different than the forms that you are used to. In this world there exists something other than what you felt the last few tens of years of your life. It happens this way with everyone.

We go through these kinds of states, until we get used to them. In the beginning, they are considered as exceptions and incomprehensible to the extent that you don’t know what to do with them. Afterward, you already get used to the existence of this inversion. You even begin to identify it in the friends when they lose balance and experience passing from state and state.

Thus we advance. You get used to it and anticipate that the inner states will change as quickly and frequently as possible, because through them you formulate acquaintance with reality. After all, all of reality is within you and depends on your state.

Thus we progress until the Machsom (barrier), where really a true change occurs. And everything that happens until then is designed to prepare for this. Get used to it!

You should be happy that you already have begun to feel yourself as something other than a beast, and that fundamental and highly qualitative changes are occurring in your attributes, in the perception that the Light that reforms brings you. No one is hypnotizing you, but it is simply the real beginning of feeling changes within.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, Shamati #148

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Ethiopian Community Stages Protest Against Inequality

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, Ethiopian Israelis staged a protest in Jerusalem against inequality. The Mutual Guarantee movement supported the rally. Only unity above all contradictions will bring the world to good!

Below are some photos from the demonstration.


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Back To School!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In our methodology of children’s integral upbringing, there are a few basic fundamental principles: single sex education for boys and girls; younger kids are taught by their older peers; children learn “in a circle” and through discussions. Particular attention is paid to practical, lifelike upbringing as opposed to its abstract part. Are these principles different in any way for adults?

Answer: Practically no, because in this regard we are entirely like children who are about to master something new. We are now starting to reveal a new world, a new life, and a new attitude towards it. We have to change and to reveal a new world for ourselves. We are like children who have to understand this new integral world that is approaching us.

In order to avoid experiencing its approach as the modern crisis, all of our actions should be directed towards entering into a state of harmony with this integral world.

Today, nature is starting to treat us as an integral, interconnected, and reciprocally balanced system in which all parts exist in equilibrium, support, and in mutual concessions. We are the most important element in this system! And for that we need to work on ourselves quite hard and to understand that all of this is not someone’s whims, inventions, or philosophical speculations, but truly a law of nature.

This law gradually and inevitably realizes itself within human society, except we don’t correspond to it. Let’s say that someone is trying to insert us into a circular frame, yet we are a square shape and cannot possibly function within a round framework—therein lies the crisis. Therefore, all grownups will have to sit at school desks again and learn to live in a new world, prepare themselves for it.

Question: You spoke about the fact that based on your experience in children’s upbringing in your center, lessons need to be held in a circle and be videotaped so that kids could later see how they look from the side. This is a very effective methodology. Can you also apply it to adults?

Answer: You can apply absolutely the same methods because age does not matter. The only thing that matters is our status relative to that new world, the new social system that we need to enter. Relative to that we are all children, and we have to study it and gradually transform, shape ourselves to match it.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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A Game As An Opportunity For Self-Expression

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the integral upbringing system for children, groups should not be large, only about ten people, two of whom are instructors. Does this principle hold for adults too?

Answer: It’s a lot easier with adults since adults are more responsible people after all. They gladly focus on the instructor and engage in discussions with him. One instructor is quite sufficient for 30-40 people, or perhaps two for 50 people. You don’t need to hold adults together, motivate them, or be playful with them, but just to educate them in form of a game. That’s the first thing.

Second, we do need to understand that people must undergo a very serious inner transformation. It is a tremendous psychological work of a person on his own self; it is his introduction to himself: Who am I? That’s why it is necessary to film him in this game so he could see himself from the side.

After all, we are playing all the time. I represent a certain image that I saw many years ago, adopted it, and am recreating it today. This is how we conduct ourselves. That is clear from psychology. That’s why the most important task in these practical courses is to provide a person with maximally correct assortments of these images that he can copy afterwards.

Based on the fact that one will recreate and control them, he will understand who he actually is because his inner faculties and attributes will constantly reveal themselves relative to the image he is enacting in play. This distance, the delta between who I am and what I am enacting, will help a person to finally attain and know himself. And that is the most important thing. Then he will truly be able to express himself, his innate internal qualities, properties, and talents. And that’s when the world will truly become integral because each person will have an opportunity to express himself.

In addition, we must prepare instructors for the new integral society from each and every one of our students, even the most lagging ones. A person has no right to be merely a passive student and to study only for himself: He must study in order to educate others. He has to feel that to the extent that he acquires that new form of connection among people, he himself becomes an active part of this connection and must necessarily carry it further.

So the students who studied with us for half a year to a year must necessarily lead groups of beginners. At first, of course, they should cover only very limited topics and work along with senior instructors. For them this is absolutely necessary. This is precisely where they develop their skills! This is precisely how the others learn from them!

We don’t need to hide the fact that we are preparing our students to become teachers, and we must place them into an appropriate teaching framework immediately. First of all, this would force them to study the material more carefully and to understand it better. Second, this will develop a tighter connection between them and the others. The most important thing in this entire study is precisely practical activities.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Co-Ed Or Single Sex Education

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should be the class composition in integral upbringing courses? Should men and women study together, or is it better to study separately, as with children?

Answer: I think that we need to eliminate as many obstacles as we can. And when men and women sit together, as a rule, this leads to additional obstacles. After all, we are all people, and we have normal instincts, but it’s best to eliminate them while we study.

To this day there are many educational institutions in the world that practice single sex education. And practice shows that it is more effective than co-ed. Therefore, it is best to separate men and women.

However, after a certain period of preparation of male and female groups, they need to be combined with the aim of discussing and clarifying common issues together. Then we’ll be able to see how, on the basis of the covered material and having changed and received an objective integral view of the world, they use discussions or disputes to begin establishing a new system of relationships. By controlling one another, they begin to create something common: not a male or female part, but common to all—the prototype of the future integral society.

But here we need to discuss our attitude to children and parents, including several generations, and to clarify, debate, and actualize these things accordingly.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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To Grow In Order To Get Closer

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that in the case of a conflict you should first separate the rivals. But the hatred is growing worldwide. If everyone stays in his “corner,” how will people connect?

Answer: First the two rival parties should be separated so that there will be no quarrel. Fighting will certainly not help the connection. When people are hostile to each other, they can’t learn about mutuality, not even theoretically. Imagine that we are fighting passionately, not listening to one another, and meanwhile we first of all need to hear each other at least a little. So, we are separated, each one is placed in his “corner,” and we communicate from a distance.

Suppose we gradually get closer and we go through stage XI and XII. Here we have a problem. We have both drawn apart from our initial positions that can’t be bridged, and as a result we are in doubt and don’t know what to do. Usually we come to a dead end.

This phenomenon is well known to diplomats: The two parties get closer, more and more, but suddenly they are thrown backwards. Why? It’s because they have drawn too far from their starting point and have stretched the wires that connect them to the starting point too far. Behind them there are the people, their enemies, and their political rivals, and they all say: “Look how far they’ve gone! How can you make so many concessions?”

Eventually we are both unhappy with the new situation. Each of us remembers the principles he has given up and doesn’t see any point in any further concessions. It’s as if we say to each other: “It isn’t worth it. Imagine what they will do to us at home if we meet midway. They’ll kill us.”

So what should we do? There is only one way out: comprehensive upbringing. You won’t achieve anything until you educate everyone so that they advance towards connection together with you. In this case, when you get closer, you don’t get away from “your side,” but simply go through phases of development, just like me.  Even if we leave the negotiations aside, it won’t send us to different sides; on the contrary, we’ll stay in the same place we managed to reach by our mutual nearing. This is what we get through education.

But in order to reach that, we must first separate the two parties, to build an education system for each of them which suits them, and to draw the ties between these two different camps. Even if both sides are ready to negotiate, there are still the people on both sides and different social sectors. They don’t understand our reasoning, they are still in a different state, and so we can’t approach each other yet. They’ll set us free only for a certain distance, but not more than that.

If you are looking for true correction, you will be able to allow people to come down from the initial position and to advance towards an opposite one only with the help of education.

Question: All this does exist in mutual relations between states, companies, and even in the family. But does the first phase always require total detachment? For example, do the EU countries have to separate and only then look for a solution?

Answer: No. It’s because this case is a bit different: They are already untied, although not so successfully. If you already have a connection, you should be very careful not to break it. Otherwise, you will be going against nature. If the Europeans do that, things will be much worse. So they have to go forward towards integration as much as possible. There is no other way.

But in order to do that, they have to change their principles. After all, nothing is more separated, alienated, and divided than Europe. History has arranged for its people to hate one another very much. Only education can help here.

If the European leaders stall for time and start mass education, the situation will improve. People will immediately begin to develop on the level of consciousness and understanding of the world. But unfortunately, the Europeans don’t see or understand this option yet.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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