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A person is a private system that needs balance, and its balance depends on the general system in which it lives. Today, when the world has become interconnected and interdependent, the general system is in fact global, because human beings are linked in one network. We influence and depend on each other, and need to advance to a state of mutual complementarity.
Just as nature is connected in an integral mechanism, we too must become integral in our next stage of development. That is what will bring humanity to an overall balance, one that will reveal a new level of calmness, health, and happiness, i.e., a completely new perception of reality. Evolutionary forces push us toward this connected state. They herd us into one boat and show us that if we fail to learn how we can get along, then we will all sink. When such a realization arises, there will emerge a process of integral awareness, the conscious development of a new person, humanity, and world.
From this broad picture, there are steps that any individual can take today to bring balance to their personal lives. The process of balance begins with learning how we are structured, what systems exist within us, and how we can manage them.
By nature, we are social beings, dependent on the society around us. Therefore, we cannot change ourselves directly, but only through the surrounding system. We are surrounded by external factors, some of which we need to increase our sensitivity to, and some of which we need to decrease, and in general, we need to build an environment that will advance us toward balance.
In order to do so, we need to first imagine the desired state, to define the form of life we want to live, what we can picture as balanced living, such as what it means to move toward a goal and to be in an optimal participation with our environment. After imagining this way of life, we need to examine how to progress toward it by choosing external factors that will help us.
The integral approach to education teaches us how to do this within a small group framework, one that consists of about ten people. To picture such a group at work, we can imagine its participants who have various problems with hypersensitivity and anxiety. Each feels the need to change their life and reach a life of balance, and they become ready to enter into a common process. They proceed to meet and describe their desirable, harmonious, and peaceful future state to each other, and then they begin to act it out to the best of their ability.
Why? It is because today’s game is tomorrow’s reality, and habit becomes second nature. Acting or playing is very serious because it constructs the future.
Therefore, we begin to act out calm lives, ones of balance and harmonious relations. We each radiate to others a positive feeling, warmth, security, and calmness. We give each other examples of how to relate to life in a relaxed manner, how not to be immediately shaken by life’s twists and turns, and to first view life from the side.
The group we build gives us the strength to do so. It positively influences us, gives us a sense of stability, and lets us approach life’s myriad states constructively, where we can build an increasingly positive connection to each other upon the negative impulses we feel from life. How much can this group affect us? It can affect us to the extent that we include ourselves in it, absorb it, and become impressed by it. The more we advance in doing so, the more we will see our attitude toward life change.
Inclusion is a central concept in the integral approach to education. To be included in the group, each participant must position themselves in a special way toward it, and this too is part of the “game” we mentioned. This attitude consists of several layers.
First, we need to raise the value and importance of the group in our eyes, to clarify what we can receive from it that we do not have, and how necessary those things are. The more important the group is to us, the greater the influence we can receive from it.
Second, we should each place ourselves in the position of small individuals standing before a great big force of togetherness, so that we can absorb as much as possible from this group. Such relations function according to a certain law, that the lower one is, the more they can receive from that which they perceive as greater. In practice, this means trying to appreciate the examples others give, relating to them respectfully, like children who wish to learn life’s wisdom from their parents.
Third, in an integral group setup, we should each apply efforts to give others positive examples of calm and balanced attitudes to different situations. Here, the attitude is the opposite of the previous one, i.e., one of the influence of the great upon the small. Even if within ourselves, we know that we are not truly calm and balanced toward everything that transpires, but in order to help others, we act the role of calmer and more balanced people who moderate emotions with reason.
Therefore, every participant should hold a dual attitude toward the group, of sometimes being small and at other times being great, in order to both receive and give positive examples of a calm and balanced attitude to life’s myriad situations.
In such interactions, we give one another a sense of security, support, warmth, connection, and love, the sense that there are people beside us who are always ready to help. This is very important, because insecurity is the source of many health problems. We must always uplift the spirit, ensure that everyone has joy from the fact that we have built a greenhouse for ourselves where each one can flourish, neutralize the stressful influences of the media, social networks, and aggressive marketing systems, and live a calm and balanced life.
Based on “New Life 87 – Fear and Anxiety, Part 2” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.