Question: At the end of February, once again we are going to the Arava desert. How can we manage to not erase what we already achieved the first time?

Answer: This cycle is different from the previous one. You will see that the first time everything became realized suddenly, like in a naïve and unsophisticated child. We succeeded then, but this time the success is possible only after multiple problems, greater contemplation and fluctuations.

After all, each time the desire becomes more cunning and gives greater resistance. No matter how high you rise, your evil inclination rises above you. This is why we cannot repeat something that already happened.

The most important thing is to be involved in this, to prepare and to understand that we have to unite and there is no other choice. Otherwise, there is no use to even start. There is no need to go to the wilderness if we are not bringing a real desire. This desire appears in the broken heart.

In the desert, the one that wins and survives is the one who really sticks to the path. On one hand he is devastated, but on the other hand, he has the end of the thread. This thread is the unity with the friends. In the end, we are not exiting the desert, but rather it turns into the land of Israel flowing with milk and honey. We will receive all spiritual abundance right at the “spot” if we unite. Then the desert, which lies between us, will turn into the Promised Land, into the intention, the yearning for the Creator. There we will reveal Him.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/12, The Zohar

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Question: Freedom of will, is it one’s voluntary agreement to be a part of integral upbringing to become an integrated human being?

Answer: It is a realization of the necessity and the fact that there’s nothing but this.

Nobody wants this; after all, we’re all egoists. However, when you begin to study and to see where everything is headed, you begin to understand the importance, the necessity, and inevitability of the next state. You also begin to wonder what will happen if you choose to shut your eyes like a small child that denies the existence of something simply because he doesn’t see it.

If I approach this consciously, then I see the terrible suffering on all levels that are befalling to push me to it. This suffering is increasing gradually, not descending as a huge immediate blow. First there is a little prodding, and then it gets stronger and stronger. But, I can already imagine what it would be.

Now we have come to serious prodding. Just look at how many natural disasters, revolutions, and other difficulties we’ve had in the past year. People are even openly discussing the possibility of nuclear war, but they are talking about it too softly.
From a “Talk about the Integrated World” #12

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Question: How can I convince myself about the urgency of spiritual work if we constantly lose the direction and strength on the way?

Answer: On the contrary, I must constantly worry for the correct direction and strength for the work. We only need to clarify these things according to the laws of creation, and this is what we learn.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a wisdom that includes all the wisdoms. It investigates the one general nature. But humanity, in the meantime, doesn’t understand that it exists in this global network. It exists in darkness and is immersed in complete unknowingness.

In order to clarify the surrounding world, humans divide it into separate parts and match them to the scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, etc. In this way we have “scratched out” nuggets of knowledge from the mountain of darkness we are in.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, explains each field in terms of one law. It doesn’t refute the general, traditional sciences. All the laws that we discovered with the help of traditional sciences belong only to a small area of our perception, in the egoistic desire, which is opposite to the nature of creation. Therefore, we must understand that in Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), when this desire disappears, we will find other laws that transcend time, movement, and space. There is another physics and chemistry; everything is different. This reality exists only temporarily, until we enter the real and wide perception of the world.

Our entire world exists only so that we will exit it and find independence. It gives us a base, a beginning point, central and independent, and disconnected from the Creator. It is farthest from the world of Infinity, the most deeply immersed in darkness, but it is specifically from this point that we begin our advancement.

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Question: It is one thing when I’m inccidentally telling a person about my system of values while he or she simply listens attentively. It’s an entirely different thing when all of us together are building an ideal picture, like communists who sat around and imagined the ideal future. The problem was that this future proved to be too removed from real life.

Answer: Communists lacked a system for people’s upbringing. And upbringing, especially in Russia during that time, and in today’s Russia too, is an enormous problem because to this day people retained the psychology of slaves. It needs to be slowly restructured to exalt personality. Russia has all the prerequisites for that.

Even though the movement upward towards the human level, toward Adam, assumes a person’s complete dissolution in society, it simultaneously involves his or her growth as a personality. This is the contradiction that they tried to destroy during the Soviet regime because they couldn’t create a system of people’s education and upbringing where a person could be a personality, have their own opinion, and could realize all their potential. They tried to simply make a little screw out of a person: “You don’t have a head, the Party will do your thinking for you; you don’t have anything other than your two hands, so you just work and we will tell you what to do.”

This isn’t the image of Adam towards which we are striving. The attempts to neutralize egoism, to annihilate it, and to artificially implant altruism and self-sacrifice in its place—that is against nature.

Here we are talking about teaching a person to utilize all of his or her egoistic motives and impulses correctly.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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Question: Let’s say that a man and a woman in a group begin to discuss an integral future, the way they imagine this integral picture…

Answer: In order for them not to fantasize about an ideal picture hinging on material prosperity that they wouldn’t be able to secure for themselves, it is better that they proceed from the principle summarized in a Russian saying, “love makes a cottage a castle”: “Let’s build our own beautiful ‘castle.’”

Question: But “love makes a cottage a castle” is a purely psychological notion.

Answer: Of course! Nothing else is necessary. They will see that they can satisfy themselves with a minimum and at the same time be perfectly happy. They won’t keep destroying themselves in this pursuit of phantom abundance and instead will be able to build their happiness immediately. But for that they need to be very smart. To achieve that, it’s necessary to educate people and seriously pursue their upbringing, to pull them up to a very serious level.

Usually, a lot of the couples get to this point, except that it happens at a very old age. A state of mutual understanding, concessions, and permeation into one another emerges between them. They know each other’s weaknesses and habits; they understand that there are things that we cannot change about another person and thus, it isn’t necessary to try to do that; they begin to love each other’s weaknesses. But all this occurs with age, in other words, though the path of suffering because decades pass before it happens (if they pass without ending in divorce first).

We need to educate people about that.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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Question: Let’s assume that after certain preparation, people in a group of ten proceed to verbally build some shared ideal image of an integral future. And afterwards they begin to clarify which of their qualities hinder the realization of this image in reality.

Answer: First of all, I would take not just ten people but, say, a hundred. From this hundred I would select completely different individuals, simply a cross-section of society, top to bottom. I would constantly diversify the questions, answers, and discussions between them. I would give a lot of attention to scientists participating in this forum so that they, from their perspective, would constantly fortify us, regular people, with their conclusions that we have no choice and nature obliges us.

First and foremost, we should act on the premise that there is no other way out: We are obliged to arrive at this state! Otherwise we’ll still get there, but it will happen through the blows.

There are two paths towards the same goal: either through force or through our conscious realization. Moreover, the conscious path is short and comfortable.

The path of force means wars and annihilation. In the end, suffering will have to be so great that I will willingly wish to renounce my egoism. But this is a subconscious development, and moreover, egoism will continuously manifest more and more. In other words, I will have to go through unfathomable lifetimes, not just one life—both within myself, in my parents, and in my children—before humanity will realize, as a result of a few generations of tremendous suffering, that it must change its nature and become integral.

This is a path that awaits us if we proceed under the influence of the coercing force of nature. Scientists need to uncover, to illustrate with examples, with experience that this is in fact a law of nature and there is no way to evade this law.

This law is actualized in us with every passing day with greater and greater force. Its movement is accelerating, so we shouldn’t delay and put it off on our children. No way! In the upcoming few years, our state will fall short of tolerable if we ourselves won’t strive towards this.

On the flip side, these same scientists are saying that as soon as we change the vector of our development to a desirable one (which would be an integral society of the future), we will immediately begin to sense nature’s benevolent relationship towards us on all levels. This includes climate, health, family relationships, financial and psychological issues, and so on.

Positive and negative statistics can be collected here, taking two societies for comparison: one which continues to pressurize itself with its egoism and the other that develops integrally.

It certainly isn’t easy, but if we did that, we would make this discovery. Scientists are revealing these laws in practice even without any such experimental group. We need their help. We need psychologists, sociologists. After all, we develop by putting people of science on the front lines, and here it should be the same way.

We absolutely need to rely on scientific data and correspondingly, to invest financial means specifically into this research that is not yet being done today. This is why we don’t have sufficiently precise data and we cannot operate with numbers.

I know many people who think like us, who understand or are capable of understanding at least a part of the overall idea. The vast majority of them are scientists: biologists, physiologists, sociologists, and psychologists.

But we cannot yet translate this idea into numbers, into something explicitly evident, with which we could approach economists, political scientists, and so on. But among them there is a large number of people who understand that the future lies in absolute integration.

Question: A person performs many destructive acts that literally wreck their life. This is a destruction of oneself, of the children, and of those around him. I can converse with people in the group only in the aspect of psychology so that their connection will become kinder and they will be happier. The same thing can be done by, say, an economist or many other specialists. Is this materialistic knowledge sufficient for building an integral field within a group?

Answer: A person will be convinced, will have grounds to believe that it is necessary to ascend. I see a danger ahead of me, and if I continue to act this way, if the surrounding society stays the same, it will be even worse. It is necessary for me to change myself and society.

People move from place to place, change careers, change everything, all only to transition to a better state. While here we are demonstrating that we don’t have any other choice, we need to simply run away from ourselves. That is why I keep saying that the most important thing is to show a person that this is a challenge of nature from which there is no escape.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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Question: Public opinion is a very powerful educational tool. How can we use this tool in groups in integral upbringing? What do we encourage? How do we bring out the desired behavior which corresponds to integrality?

Answer: We take time during discussions and conversations to show examples of correct and incorrect behavior and interactions; we analyze the motives, the different subconscious and conscious incentives, ones that are instinctive and conscious: instinctive being those that come from nature, and instinctively acquired from the environment during the upbringing process when habit becomes second nature.

We try to separate all of this, explain where it comes from, why it comes from the past society in which we grew up, and why we now need to change, and especially why we need to change and reeducate our children.

But if the children continue to be educated in the same environment with the same adults, it will be another several generations until they change. What can we do to change our children now? To do it we are the ones who need to change first.

I think that the interactions between parents and children, love for children, the desire to give them a good new world is a very strong factor of influence on the adults. And it must impel us to make a change so that we do not just play at, but we will actually build a good society for our children.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #7 12/14/2011

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Question: Will Europe become attractive to the world once again?

Answer: If it wakes up, shakes off the desperation and helplessness and begins to search aloud for a new path, then despite aging, decaying, and financial and cultural crises, it will become attractive once again, just like an awakening Phoenix bird.

Actually, the search for new ideology lies in integration in particular, and the example of unity of Europe will attract attention, sympathy, and interest for the whole world.

Question: Who is the Biblical ancestor of the nations of the world?

Answer: Adam HaRishon (the first man) had three sons: Seth, Cain and Abel. Abel had no children and was murdered by his brother, Cain. All of Cain’s descendants were killed in the flood. Seth’s descendants, Noah’s family, were saved from the flood and all of humanity came from them.
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Question: At what stage should we introduce students who study through virtual courses of the Education Center to veteran students and the groups?

Answer: I don’t think it’s possible to restrict this connection in any way. In general, it’s best not to intervene; it should occur by itself. And certainly some of our experienced friends need to assist the teacher in working with new students, by giving lectures, answering their questions, and helping establish communications with them. However, the veterans need to be careful not to show themselves as “big” since by doing so they would undermine the image of the teacher in the eyes of the students and prevent them from the possibility of learning in the correct manner.

It is possible only to learn from a “great man.” Conversely, if you think he is small, then you are already the teacher and he is the student. Thus, it is very important that the assistants don’t stand out, but remain as assistants to the teacher and display a respect for the teacher. They will set an example for the students and will elevate respect for the teacher in their eyes, and this will help the students receive more from him.

After all, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the material is comprehended according to the importance of the teacher. The more the student annuls himself before the teacher, thus he will be considered a better student. We are not talking here about knowledge that I comprehend with intelligence, but specifically about how I see myself as small in comparison to the teacher, or the teacher as great in comparison to myself. The greater the gap between us, the more abundance will descend on me. There is no measurement for abundance in itself. I define its intensity precisely according to the same greatness that I elevate the teacher in my eyes. This is very important. The assistants need to correctly build the relationship of the new students to the teacher. Success depends on this.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12, Learning Kabbalah

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Question: Social psychology speaks of the role of “small talk” and states that to have a good relationship with your neighbors, it is sufficient to simply say “hello” during each encounter. If I don’t do this systematically, then in the overall system I become indebted to my neighbors. When this “debt” reaches its maximum, neighbors can simply get rid of me. Can this kind of information help a person build an integral society?

Answer: Of course it can. This information speaks to the fact that we are all integrally connected and therefore need to receive certain signals from each other, at the very least to interact on the level of “hello.” This is a good example.

Question: I can give another example. We spoke about a rather peculiar interaction between relatives. For some reason, a majority of people attempt to build a friendly relationship with, say, their mother-in-law. Obviously, they don’t succeed in that; they are burdened by these ties, which then turn into resentments. In the integral upbringing courses, can we tell people that they shouldn’t try to be friends with their mother-in-law, that this is a different form of interaction?

Answer: People need to be taught a lot in this respect, in particular about what levels of connection one should have. However, I don’t think that we need to operate the way that psychologists do today. If we enter the level of mutual integration, the well-intentioned, simple attitude of people towards each other will involuntarily build the correct connections, where we don’t shun or show off to each other.

It is precisely these sincere mutual interactions that will place us in our corresponding positions relative to each other, akin to connected cogwheels. There are people with whom my connection is tighter, as well as those who are further away from me. I shouldn’t pretend otherwise and insinuate myself into a tight grip with everyone.

Therefore, if I am bound to my spouse through family ties, it doesn’t mean that I have to be similarly connected with her mother and other relatives since all of this is carried out only through him or her and in no other way. If it wasn’t for my spouse, I would possibly have never even known them. It is necessary for us to show these connections directly, to clarify them.

When we draw people towards mutual integrality, they understand that mutual separation or mutual closeness should originate precisely from our state in the overall system. And that is why there shouldn’t be any offense or resentment here.

I greet my neighbors because the fact that living in the same wing of an apartment building or on the same floor obliges me to do so, while I have no obligation to greet the people who live in a neighboring house or even a neighboring wing.

In other words, it is precisely our compatibility with each other and our closeness that determine to what extent I need to expose this mutual connection, this cohesion with others. Thus, if this is recognized by people, they are not obliged to anything. On the contrary, they will naturally, from within, enter any given contact in accordance with the general system, the overall interconnection between everyone.

I do not see a problem in this and I think that all of this will spring from within a person.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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