The Success Of A Congress Depends On The Preparation For It

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What are you expecting from your trip to South America and the upcoming convention in Brazil?

Answer: I look forward to this trip with excitement since it gives me an opportunity to achieve some results in the mission to which I have dedicated my life. But on the other hand, this result doesn’t depend on me, which is why I’m simultaneously inspired by this opportunity and cautious in my expectations.

And naturally, the outcome of the convention depends not only on those who’ll come to Brazil, but on all of our friends from around the world—you all understand this very well. And this is why I think that we need to conduct a very serious preparation, which is extremely important to each of us individually and to all of us together.

Let’s really prepare ourselves in a way Rabash describes in his articles “The Need for the Gathering of Friends” and “Preparation for the Gathering of Friends.” Preparation for a gathering includes clarifying why I need these friends, what they give to me and I to them. Even before I come to the meeting, I must clarify the purpose of creation and how it can be attained so that this convention, that is, the unification in which everyone is equal, becomes a means of achieving the desired goal.

I am glad that people understand this better and better, and I believe that through these conventions we will be able to leap to the next degree. All of it depends on our preparation. This is what we lacked before the European convention in Lithuania, where we didn’t have such joint preparation.

There was only participation of the whole world in the convention, the kind that I feel now as well. But it’s only participation; for now I don’t yet sense a real preparation, even though we know that it determines everything. Right now, we need to conduct a massive preparation, which is even more important than whatever will happen later at the convention.

At the time of the convention, all kinds of obstacles could come up, such as interruptions in the Internet broadcast or whatever else. But at that point it’s no longer important because the action itself doesn’t depend on us, we are charged only with its preparation. We should never forget about this!

Your preparation doesn’t depend on anyone other than yourself since it happens as if in concealment. It has not revealed itself yet, hasn’t been realized in action. It is said that the thoughts of a person are not accessible to the impure force, it knows only of his actions. And this is why we can freely prepare together, correspond, and share our plans. And it is very important. The action itself could even appear as entirely unsuccessful, but the result won’t depend on the action itself at all but on the preparation for it.

We are concerned with the way the action itself turns out because we’re still small in spirituality, and we use the impressions we receive to determine the “success” or “failure” of a convention. But in reality, everything is determined by the preparation, and this is why the main emphasis right now should be made specifically on it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”

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Preparing To Meet The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe upper Light is at absolute rest, which means that I shouldn’t hope that there’ll be changes on its end and need to change only myself, my desires. And even though it is said that the Lights agitate the desires, there is only just one Light. The Light is divided into five beams in correspondence to the desire being divided into five parts, and thus the desire senses the single Light as if there are five different Lights. The vessel changes and therefore it feels as if the Light agitates it.

And if everything depends on the desire, it means that the entire success is determined by its preparation. Depending on how the desire prepares itself, meaning whether or not it will be ready for the action, for its meeting with the Light, so it will be! This is why preparation determines the entire outcome of an action.

And we don’t know what the action will be. Perhaps it will be an even deeper fall into Egypt or one of the Egyptian plagues?! Or perhaps it will be the crossing of the Red Sea, which is not a very pleasant adventure either, or the escape from the Pharaoh’s army, or even receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. All these situations can hardly be called pleasant pastimes—they all pass in trepidation, fear, hate, and great strain. But preparation determines whether or not we will be able to overcome all this.

Therefore, right now we need not think about the way the convention itself will go, but only about how we can prepare ourselves for the action of unification. And the degree that will be revealed to us within this unity will show us where we are: Perhaps we are still in Egypt, or we are about to exit it, or maybe we are already beyond its borders.

Everything depends only on the preparation of our desires (vessels, instruments), while the Light is at constant rest. Depending on how we prepare ourselves to correspond to the Light, we will receive its influence accordingly, that is, we will sense how we are acquiring its form.

You will see that there are no obstacles to preparation; it is always blessed and leads to advancement. While the action itself is a meeting with the Light, and it can lead to completely opposite results from what we were expecting. The result will always be for our benefit, but it can appear to us as a blow, like, for example, the plagues of Egypt, which signified the stages of advancement towards a spiritual birth. And we can go through them in the blink of an eye, one after another, in the duration of a single convention….
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress” 

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The Foundation Of The Spiritual Ladder

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If connection occurs on the spiritual level, why do we need to come to the convention and meet in person?

Answer: You don’t think that it’s possible to disconnect from the Internet entirely and instead of the lesson, to sit with your eyes closed and connect to us through internal channels, do you? Evidently, you’re not yet prepared for such internal connection and will begin to daydream and meditate.

We understand each other better when we meet. It’s necessary to meet at least once in order to feel what that is. We receive impressions from this world, from the five bodily senses of perception, and therefore we need to feel each other through the regular senses. We’re animals, not angels.

Our brain consists largely of cells that perceive smells, and they grow like seaweed covering the ocean floor. Despite all of our modern virtual networks, we act in this world according to our animal instincts. This is why we need the most direct contact; otherwise, on a subconscious level we’ll lack a great amount of data needed for a higher connection.

We are required to meet since we live in this world and from this world we begin our spiritual ascent along the rungs of the ladder! Thus, if we won’t lay the foundation for this ladder, we won’t be able to climb it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”

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The Power Of Women And Men: A Condition For Spiritual Ascent

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe study the role of men and women based on the system of spiritual worlds because examples can only be drawn from there, and not our world.

There are a million theories in our world, and we see that even today we still do not know the proper role of men and women; therefore, our world is so imperfect.

In the spiritual world, there is the quality of Bina, bestowal, and we must become equal to this quality. To do this, we must unite in such an integral way to be able to connect with Zeir Anpin, and then he will raise us to Bina.

This is a very complicated system with many different elements. It controls us; it emits all the signals to the souls; it launches us, and in our turn, we ascend toward it.

According to this system, there are two forces in the world: feminine and masculine. It is impossible to ascend just through one of them. Only the proper use of both of them creates the necessary conditions sufficient for ascent.

The feminine inclination forms an enormous desire. But this desire cannot be realized independently since it is just a desire, which does not have the power to realize itself.

And next to that is the next force, the masculine force.

A woman provides the need to ascend. It pushes the masculine part. It creates an enormous desire out of itself, inspires, directs, prays, and forms. It pushes men forward, like a mother sends her children to school and her husband to work. She creates the efforts, which enable them to advance, otherwise they would not have moved. Due to these efforts, the masculine part takes the feminine desire, begins to realize it, and ascends forward.

The woman is the lack of fulfillment, an enormous desire, without which nothing can exist. And the man is the force, which already turns this lack into the moving force and attains the Creator. He attains the Creator with the help of the desire he has received from the feminine part; he raises this desire, and together, they realize it.

This is the way things initially were in our world: Once a man went hunting and brought his prey home, and today he goes to work and brings home a salary. This is the way the family exists; this is the way the world is.

In our group we cannot break these natural conditions, otherwise we will not correspond to the higher structure. We must constantly be like the upper Partzuf.

Therefore, we need the women’s desire, their enormous effort, their prayer from the depth of their hearts. Women can influence men with their silent desire in such a way that men will feel like the women are screaming at them, even though in reality, they don’t say a word, but simply want.

Men have the ability to perceive the desire of a woman in such a way that he will want to realize it. He must realize it; this is the way we are made. If we will direct our common desires the right way, we will absolutely reach our goal.

It is impossible to move forward without women. They start this movement; they are the first to react to the changes in the world, to our method. And men must connect between them and realize this method. Why? Because the power that pulls us forward is the power to bestow. Women need to provide the lack and the need, and men, the creation of the power to bestow.

We build our groups based on this principle.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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It All Starts With A Woman

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How important is women’s practical work? For example, how important is it for women to also take part in seminars on integration instead of doing their own thing?

Answer: Men will not be able to do anything on their own. Absolutely nothing!

They can get together, stand around, and sing as usual, these are good things, but it is just preparation. The real work cannot be without a strong women’s part generating its aspiration towards the same goal at the same time. It cannot be any other way! We see this everywhere, always. There are many examples in history. This comes from the structure of the upper Partzufim, the upper worlds; if we do not raise this desire to Malchut, it does not form, and without it, nothing happens. So women must take this very seriously.

First, I direct my attention towards the women’s part because everything starts with it. I really ask you to understand that here practically everything depends on the woman. Men can be “launched,” they can be manipulated, and women know this very well. The right way of manipulating men is based on seriously directing them towards the goal; a woman can literally do this with her desire alone, with just one word, with anything she does. It is very easy for her, and for men, it is very difficult, basically impossible, to advance on their own.

This is why there has always been a law in Kabbalah that unmarried men are not taken as students. This is because without the desire of a woman near you thinking about your succeeding, you will not be able to advance seriously.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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The Hidden Gene Of Development

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf there were no spark of bestowal inside the desire to enjoy, it would not develop. How did a human being evolve from an ape? An ape operates purely by instinct, and a huge question arises: How in the process of evolution, from what type and kind, and in what way did a human suddenly appear? How could he develop from an animal?

His desire to know the upper force, his Creator, raises a human above the animal. It is explained by the presence of the spiritual spark developing inside a human being. This spark can be of four types, four levels, and that it is why there are different kinds of people more or less close to spiritual work.

If the spiritual spark begins to speak inside of my desire to enjoy, I already have two qualities—one against the other. I can compare them and decide what to do: to work for the sake of my egoism or for the sake of the spark of bestowal.

The spark of bestowal can bring my desire to enjoy a great gain. If we had been guided only by the desire to enjoy, we would have remained animals that do not evolve. But if we have the spark carrying the force of bestowal, we begin to use it to our advantage. Thus humanity developed.

In the beginning, a man used to bring his prey to his cave only for his family. But then he saw that it was too much, and his family could not eat everything. Then he gave a half to his neighbor and exchanged it for something useful. The egoistic desire was constantly growing, and he did not want to just share with everyone; thus, began mutually beneficial exchange.

The desire to enjoy was growing, the desire to bestow was increasing at the same time, and a human was getting smarter. He invented trade and markets, which exists to this day. Only it stimulated all our development, as it is said: “Go and earn money from each other.”

But this was not the main gain, it was the qualities that we learned from each other in the course of this trade. Thus, the desire to enjoy was growing due to the presence of the desire to bestow in it.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/12, “The Gate of Intentions”

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Women’s Special Kind Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanAccording to our nature, the nature of a created being, connection exists only among men. Women don’t connect among themselves because their egoism is of a special kind. That is neither good nor bad.

It is important to work in our original nature without trying to damage it. It is important to work with the material we have been created with and understand that we’ll reach the goal only by using our nature properly.

By putting men and women into one group, in the process of working together we feel a different connection among men than among women.

It is not felt as much in real life as in our integral methodology lessons. Literally, in a half an hour to an hour of common studies, the men’s part starts feeling that their nature is ready to go forward and be connected with everyone while women’s part feels incapable of working toward getting closer to each other.

The best result is achieved by women supporting men with their intention and efforts while men get closer to each other.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.15.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Show Me Your Respect”
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Zohar for AllPassover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “And It Came to Pass at Midnight,” Item 129
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Writings of the Rabash Dargot HaSulam
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Internal Preparation For The Convention

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is an internal preparation for the convention?

Answer: Internal preparation is a reverence for the property of bestowal as the force, property, value, that is above everything. On the basis of such preparation, you can then continue and work out various individual states, actions, and goals in order to reach the common goal and realize this property of bestowal within our matter, the desire to enjoy.

I am asking everyone to send their suggestions on how to conduct the convention in Brazil. We will discuss them during the lessons, and in this way we will learn from our common action and prepare our common desire. In other words, the convention will be a realization of what we will prepare together.

Everybody must prepare themselves, wherever in the world they may be. It cannot be that a person returns from work, does all the household chores, and when there is a little free time left, suddenly remembers that there is a convention going on, turns on the broadcast, and begins to watch.

Nothing will come out of it. A person should prepare in advance, anticipate, and plan what he will be doing together with us and how he will advance due to these actions. The action itself is worth nothing; everything depends on the preparation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”  

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Pesach, Matzah, And Bitter Herb

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we are in our desire to receive yearning only to receive a filling, we don’t feel that there is something else outside our desire. We only understand that there is a void in us that must be filled and that feels that it is empty. As long as our desire doesn’t receive all the filling, it will not calm down. It is like a crying baby that doesn’t calm down until he receives everything that he needs.

How can we teach such a desire to receive another pleasure, pleasure from bestowal? It doesn’t even understand what it is, and cannot feel and do such a thing. But gradually we begin to teach it according to a plan.

The whole study is based on the readiness to suffer, because the desire needs to give up its filling, to give up the desire for the filling, to give up the feeling of the self, the self pride, the envy, the respect, and the control, which means its independence.

At first a person thinks that he can correct himself, until he sees that it is impossible, and that it can only be realized by the upper force. He learns from failing all the time. Thus he is taught that he should lower his head and ask, ask for the one thing that he doesn’t want. Then he receives help and changes, becoming his opposite, by beginning to enjoy what was hateful before.

We have to go through this whole process in understanding, in recognition, in agreement, in our feelings and in the mind, in our consciousness. Everything you were proud of before and considered respectable, now seems the opposite, and you discover your lowliness and your helplessness. Our desire to receive, which doesn’t know anything but to fill itself, feels all this when it learns about a totally new method.

This process takes place according to the three symbols: “Pesach” (Passover), “Matzah,” and “Maror” (bitter herb). It is called “Pesach” from the Hebrew root to skip, as a person constantly jumps from one side to its opposite, and so he turns his small measures of receiving into bestowal. He does that by Matzah, “the bread of affliction,” since he has no other food and he agrees to settle for what he receives from bestowal.

A person constantly raises the importance of bestowal, while his desire to receive only gets the “bitter herb.” Thus he raises the right line, the Matzah, over the left line, the bitter herb, like a hero who overcomes the bitter taste and wants to turn it to the sweetness of bestowal. Then he reaches Pesach, the changing of his consciousness.

By the new attitude towards the desire to receive, that doesn’t change, he builds the human in him. “Adam” (Man) is what is built above the desire. This is the system that begins to work according to the new principle with the same natural attributes, but by using them in order to bestow.

The mechanism, that is created by that is made of all the person’s actions and exertions as he overcomes his desire to receive, is what is called “Adam.” All this is done by the three special components that symbolize the holiday of freedom from the ego, Pesach, that are called Pesach, Matzah, and bitter herb.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/12, Writings of Rabash

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