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When we speak about the problems facing humanity today, whether they appear on more psychological levels such as emptiness, depression, or loneliness, or in terms of the breakdown of the family, economic instability, and social breakdown, we are actually facing a single, underlying issue. This issue is not technological, political, or even cultural. It is educational. More precisely, it is the absence of a education that corresponds to the new reality humanity has entered.
Human development has always been driven by the ego, the desire to enjoy for self-benefit. This ego grows from birth, develops through generations, and has brought us to everything we see today, i.e., science, technology, culture, and civilization itself. However, in recent decades, a fundamentally new phenomenon has taken place. Our ego has reached a state where it no longer develops linearly as it has done throughout history. Instead, it has become integrated, interconnected, and in many ways confused and exhausted.
We see this in the growing despair and emptiness people are experiencing today. Despite material abundance, more and more people feel empty. Depression, drug use, and divorce rates are rising. The younger generation increasingly lacks motivation. Even structures that once gave stability, such as the family, education, and community, are becoming weaker. At the same time, we face ecological threats and economic uncertainty that we cannot fully comprehend or control.
All of this stems from a single change, that humanity has become an integral system.
This means that we are no longer separate individuals or even separate nations that act independently. We are now interdependent, like parts of a single organism. This interdependence exists whether we recognize it or not. It becomes revealed in global markets, in ecological systems, and in the way events in one part of the world instantly affect another. However, most importantly, it exists on a deeper level, within the human system itself.
The problem is that while the world has become integral, our perception has not. We remain egoists. Each of us thinks primarily about ourselves. We do not feel the system as a whole, and we do not understand how our actions affect it. Accordingly, we are like cogwheels in a machine that have suddenly become tightly interconnected, but each one continues to spin in its own direction. Naturally, this leads to friction, breakdown, and crisis.
We do not even know how much we influence each other. A small action by one person can ripple through the system in ways we cannot predict. This is why the avalanche of increasing problems on personal, social, economic, ecological, and global scales feels uncontrollable. It is not that the system is broken. It is that we do not know how to operate within it.
Therefore, the solution is not to change the system, because the system is already given by nature. The solution is to change ourselves, i.e., to adapt our perception and behavior to the integral nature of reality. This is where integral education becomes necessary.
Integral education is not about acquiring knowledge in the usual sense. It is about developing a new sense, a sensitivity to the system as a whole. It teaches a person to feel that they are part of a global, interconnected structure, and to understand how their actions contribute to its balance or imbalance.
This is what is meant by the principle “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is no mere moral or ethical slogan, but a practical law of survival in an integral system. To “love your neighbor” means to feel the system outside of yourself as your own, to take it into account in every action. Without doing so, we cannot function properly in today’s world.
Some people naturally have a tendency to care for others. There are individuals who are altruistic by nature, who help others and contribute to society. However, this is not the same as being integral. Their actions are still based on personal feelings, i.e., they help where they feel compassion or connection. They do not necessarily perceive the entire system or understand how to align with it.
Integral perception is completely different. It is a conscious and learned ability to sense the whole system and act in accordance with it. Integral perception requires a transformation in how we think, feel, and make decisions. It affects every aspect of life, from the economy, education, and culture, through to life in the family and personal behavior.
When we begin to develop this sensitivity, we start to see that our actions against the system is not only harmful to others, but it is harmful to ourselves. The conflict between personal desire and the system’s needs gradually resolves, because we begin to understand that our real benefit lies in harmony with the whole.
This is why the myriad problems we are experiencing are, at their core, an educational crisis. We have entered a new stage of human development, but we have not been given the tools to navigate it. Without integral education, the tension between our egoistic nature and the integral structure of reality will only increase.
It is also not by chance that there is a spotlight placed on the Jewish people in this process. Why is there so much attention placed on people who make up only around 0.2 percent of the world population? The role of the Jewish people in humanity’s development is connected precisely to education. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Jewish people have a historical and spiritual connection to the method of integral development. This method, rooted in the principle of developing positive human connection above egoism and separation needs to first be understood and implemented within this group, and then shared with the rest of humanity.
This is why there is a persistent expectation, which is mostly subconscious for the time being, from the world toward the Jews. It is also the deeper root of the pressure and negativity directed toward them. The world senses that there is a method for correction, but it has not yet been revealed or applied.
Therefore, the task before us is clear. We must begin to learn what it means to live in an integral world. We must educate ourselves and our children not only to succeed individually, but to function as parts of a single system. This is how we can make an impactful shift from an accumulation of more and more problems to balance, from emptiness to a lasting and genuine form of fulfillment, and from conflict to harmony.
Based on “Education – Jtimes with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.