Human Development from 0 to 20
Glossary
Key terms as they are used throughout the book, following the terminology of Bnei Baruch and Dr. Michael Laitman.
- Desire to receive Heb. Ratzon leKabel
- the fundamental substance of creation; the wish to be filled, to enjoy, to receive pleasure. All of Nature — still, vegetative, animate, and human — is built upon it.
- Egoism
- the desire to receive when it is directed only toward self-benefit, at the expense of others. In this book it is a developmental force, not merely a moral flaw: the growth of egoism has driven all human progress and now brings humanity to the need for a new, integral form of connection.
- Bestowal Heb. Hashpa'a
- giving; directing one's desire toward the benefit of others and of the whole. The opposite of, and correction for, egoistic reception. To act "in order to bestow" is to use one's desire for the sake of the general system rather than oneself.
- Reception
- receiving or being filled. To receive "in order to bestow" is to receive for the sake of the whole; to receive "in order to receive" is egoistic reception.
- The four degrees: still, vegetative, animate, speaking
- the four levels of the desire to receive found throughout Nature, corresponding to inanimate matter, plants, animals, and the human (speaking) being. Each degree contains a greater desire than the one below it.
- Nature
- the single, complete, interconnected system of forces and laws that governs reality; used in this book interchangeably with the general lawfulness of existence (and, in the Kabbalistic sense, with the Creator, the upper force of bestowal).
- Integral / integrality
- describing a system whose parts are completely interdependent, so that each element affects and is affected by all the others. "Integral upbringing" is education that prepares a person to live consciously within such a mutually connected world.
- Integral upbringing vospitanie
- the method of education at the center of this book: raising a person to sense the whole, to relate correctly to the environment and to others, and to develop the human degree above the animate (bodily) one.
- Environment
- the surrounding society, group, and influences that shape a person. Correct development depends on placing a person within the right environment.
- The group
- a circle of people connected by a shared aim who intentionally build mutual connection; the practical framework in which integral upbringing is realized.
- Connection / unity
- the bond between people through which the integral quality of Nature is revealed; the goal toward which upbringing leads.
- Correction Heb. Tikkun
- the process of turning the intention behind the desire to receive from "for myself" to "for the sake of bestowal and connection."
- Perception of reality
- the recognition that what a person senses as "the world" depends on that person's own qualities; changing one's qualities changes what one perceives.
- The upper force / the Creator
- in Kabbalistic terms, the single force of bestowal and love underlying Nature, which the integral method brings a person to sense and resemble.
- Kabbalah
- the wisdom that describes the general law of Nature and the method for a person to come into balance with it; the source from which this method of integral upbringing is adapted.
- Bnei Baruch / Ashlag Research Institute (ARI)
- the organization founded by Dr. Michael Laitman that develops and disseminates this method of integral education, adapting the wisdom of Kabbalah (in the tradition of Baal HaSulam, Rav Yehuda Ashlag) to contemporary problems of upbringing and society.