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In Israel, we know how to unite when there is a military operation. We put aside our quarrels and go out together to defend the country. If we learn how to unite also during routine times, we will discover that mutual guarantee can protect us from any trouble, whether in society, the economy, relationships, the family, and even ecologically. The special power of mutual guarantee is embedded in the roots of our nation, and we would be wise to learn about this state and try to implement it in our daily lives, without having to wait for tense situations to force us into a temporary unity.
Our mutual responsibility has been described in several texts written by our sages. Such sayings as “all of Israel are friends,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” “love will cover all crimes,” and uniting “as one man with one heart” founded our nation’s values from the outset. It was Abraham the Babylonian who discovered that all of nature is one closed system powered by one force, and that we humans also need to create positive connection, complementarity, unity, and love in our relations. Above the inherent ego that divides us, and the rejection that surfaces, and above the differences and distinctions of opinion, we should constantly aspire for complete integration, like that which exists naturally in the great system of nature.
Abraham explained this to anyone who was willing to listen. Those who gathered around his idea from the various nations and tribes in the area became a community from which our nation later emerged. Afterward, we went through a chain of states, and in the end, the ego reached such proportions that it was impossible to rise above it. Unfounded hatred destroyed the nation, and we went into exile among the nations of the world. Now we are once again here, and the same demand stands before us: to unite “as one man with one heart,” or we will not rise in our unity, and thus also experience no quiet, security, or peace.
What is most important for our country is a cultural-educational process encompassing the whole of society, which will make us feel that we are all one family. The integral method of education teaches how we can create such a feeling, and we can practice it at every level of human life, whether at home, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in communities, in the media, on social networks, and throughout the whole of society.
One of the tools we can use in this process is the connection workshop, a special discussion with rules that aim at enabling deep connection between participants. By sitting together in a circle, we can develop a warm connection in the beginning of a discussion around a certain topic, which we place before us for a mutual examination. There is no better way to solve challenges and conflicts, and there is an entire methodology that explains how to do it. When we hold connection workshops according to specific rules that design these experiences to maximize connection between participants, we begin to feel a special connecting force between us that works wonders.
If we broaden our view, we will see that in today’s global world, everyone is connected. Whether we want it or not, it is a fact. Mutual dependence is constantly rising. Something happens somewhere, and we can experience it quickly on the other side of the world. We are all in the same boat. The problem is that each person’s ego is also constantly growing. We increasingly see nothing beyond ourselves, and we are unwilling to consider anyone else. Thus, we experience a clash that we create between the nature of the connected world and the narrow egoism in human nature.
The still, vegetative, animate, and human levels are included in the system of nature. Also, in nature there are absolute laws. We might think that we are smarter than nature and can do whatever we want, but in the end such an approach will turn out to be destructive.
In nature there is integral lawfulness by which all elements of reality are tied into one general network. If this system is more or less balanced, then we have living conditions that allow for our existence on Earth. The attitudes we hold toward each other, our relations, thoughts, and desires influence this system’s balance, since we are significant parts of the natural system. These subtle forces have the greatest power of all. A bad thought of one person toward another introduces a negative charge into the entire system of nature. We activate force fields not only with devices and technology but also with our hearts and minds.
Therefore, integral principles like “Don’t do to others what you hate” are not merely morality recommendations, but definitions of the code of existence in a connected state. Our body, by comparison, could not survive if each part acted without integral connection to the whole system. This is what Abraham the Patriarch discovered, and it is why he spoke of the unity of all and what that obliges.
We people are the only creatures in nature that are not instinctively under the system’s operation, and we can thus think in relation to future goals, making discernments and gaining awareness accordingly. If we choose to advance our unification, we will radiate a balancing positive influence to the whole of nature.
In the meantime, we do exactly the opposite, and the future thus looks bad. In ecology, the economy, society, culture, education, and the family unit, every system that we have developed throughout history is approaching collapse. This stems from the fact that with the intensification of the human ego, every kind of competition has become increasingly destructive. We oppose nature’s integrality more and more each day, and now the time has come to change direction and build compatibility if we wish to change course to a better world.
In Israel, if we return to the starting point, then we have the ability here to invest in research and development of the more advanced, integral way of life. It is embedded in our roots, and we and the world will increasingly need it like the air we breathe. That is also the reason for much of humanity being angry with us: many people feel in their gut that we have the remedy for their pain, but we do not release it. Consciously or subconsciously, the world expects to see a different Israel, a society that lives in unity above its powerful opinionatedness. If we crack the code here, then this unifying tendency above divisiveness will spread easily worldwide.
Our key aspiration should be connection above everything else. When problems, conflicts, and misunderstandings reveal themselves, then we should connect upon them. Everything that surfaces is solely meant to make us further connect. It is true that we do not think alike, which is completely fine. However, if we need to make a fateful decision that affects the lives of us all, then we can do so like a family, out of a common desire to benefit everyone. Just as every family has a limited budget, and every family member has their own desires and needs, if there is a warm bond, we understand and feel together what the right order of priorities is.
To conduct discussions and make decisions from a place of connection, we need to develop the ability to rise above the ego, above the desire for our individual opinions to win. We must present our opinion, otherwise it will be missing from the collective puzzle, and we should explain it rationally and clearly, but in a pressure-free manner, without confusing others and without slyness. Although we can and should present different opinions, we should each want to feel connected as a more primary goal in our connections: to be in love and unity, to bring our hearts and minds together in the center of the circle, and to give birth to something new. With this common intention, with an inner request that the connection between us will indeed succeed, we will suddenly see how new solutions begin to formulate.
Therefore, to protect ourselves from all threats, internal and external, we have only one direction at which we can aim ourselves: mutual guarantee, a deep connection from everyone to everyone. That is what our good future depends on.
Based on “New Life” episode 55 with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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