Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.30.13

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From The Group To The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we work with people who don’t have a point in the heart, we feel that it brings them joy. Is this feeling spiritual work?

Answer: On the whole I transfer myself into the other. I transfer my point in the heart into the desires called “my soul.” Everything that is external to me among the seven billion people is all my soul, one desire, and if I discover all of it, I will reach the end of correction.

In other words, I fill my soul and what fills it is called the “Creator” in its infinite form. So my goal is to exit myself and enter the other and at the same time to feel everyone. This is impossible in our current state!

We need a group in order to allow us and to give us the means, the skilled work of exiting ourselves and entering the other. This means that the group is our first tool. In Kabbalistic terms it is called GE.

We have to study the “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” in order to understand these terms correctly. We have to take the courses in our campus since otherwise we will have no common language and you will even find it difficult to understand what you attain.

Thus you will get to know what is revealed to you and will understand what each attainment is called. You will integrate everything that is in you with what is revealed to you in spirituality.

We have to reach adhesion with all of humanity, to exit ourselves and enter the world. So we have to first organize our vessel, our tool, in order to prepare it for working with the world. In order to do that we were given a group of Kabbalists and the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we have to study this work in the group and then advance from the group to everyone else.

The main work is done in the group, and with the help of the group, we work on everything else. This is the place where all the fears, the assumptions, and just a little bit of knowledge are revealed since it is only now that everything begins to develop and is ready for work. It is there that totally different worlds are revealed, full of the Light of Hochma, which means with the deep attainment of the Creator.

In the group, we attain the vessels for working with the Creator. With His help we begin to understand Him a little, but only externally since in our global group we only process the desire to bestow, GE, the attributes of bestowal. These are very small egoistic attributes on the root level, level one, and part of level two.

When the whole global group begins to work for the benefit of the global vessel, we will begin to work with great egoistic desires that cannot be revealed now since they are much greater and stronger than ours and are therefore so distant from spiritual advancement.

It seems that many people like the Europeans, Africans, and others are impossible to reach. It is impossible to reach them since they have the greatest spiritual ego. But when we begin to work for their sake, we begin to connect their huge desires to our desires, to fill them, to rejoice for them about their state. So this is where we work not just in order to attain actions of bestowal but also the Creator’s attribute of bestowal in its depth.

I don’t know what I can compare it to. There are people who enjoy listening to music. I remember I had a subscription to the philharmonic orchestra of Leningrad but since I am not an expert I asked some young musicians to tell me a little about how they perceive “Swan Lake” for example, or Rachmaninov.

It is a totally different world, a different feeling including feelings and a process that go together when people understand everything in depth. You have a totally different feeling. By the way, in Kabbalah you don’t know this feeling, you don’t penetrate it, but live in it; you become the feeling. So the goal of the whole correction of humanity is the deepest attainment of the Creator that ends in absolute adhesion to Him.
[110587]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 5 

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Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is nothing we can do. We cannot sit idly and torture ourselves, but we must exert ourselves. But we don’t work according to what we feel since otherwise we wouldn’t move. If I obey my feelings and my sensations, I will always remain in the same state and won’t be able to do anything.

My feelings, my desire to receive is in a certain state and while I am immersed in my desire, in my matter, I can’t act against it. Luckily I have a mind by which I begin to study my feelings, so I understand that my state, my feelings, are bad and that I must change them.

By using my mind, which is totally opposite from my feelings, I begin to imagine the next state, the upper level that operates on me and influences me if I yearn for it, like an embryo for his mother. I begin to think about how I should hide myself, how I should “hide under its wings,” and how I can enter the upper level and adapt myself to it.

I think only about the form of the embryo, about the impression that I will receive from the upper if I penetrate it even egoistically and provide myself with its protection and concern. So I imagine what the mother’s womb that I want to enter is like and I understand that it’s the group that is established by my relations with the friends. I gradually begin to do my best to establish such relations with the friends.

Thanks to these small efforts that stem from the mind, I begin to advance, “everything is cleared in the mind” since when it comes to feelings, I am simply dead. But by using my mind, I can think about it a little and imagine this picture: the order of the states of the two levels, the lower and the upper. I imagine how the lower enters the upper, how it’s possible to arrange such a state with the help of the group and how to lower myself before them so that they will become the part of the womb that will pass the upper Light on to me. If I lower myself before them, I will be able to receive the Light by them and not even know it.

So I repeat that we mustn’t remain under the total control of our feelings that tear us apart during the descent. We have to imagine the relations between the levels and where you are with regards to the upper, to use the mind a little in order to exit my feelings and to look objectively at the state I am in and what can be done in it, even if it is artificial.

A person begins to imagine levels and states and influences his feelings by his mind and thus has food for thought. This is how he begins to establish his new state. The Light that Reforms comes and takes a person out of the bad mood by implanting in him hope and confidence with which he returns to the friends.
[110919]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/13, Shamati #40

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How To Convince A Person To Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from bakadesuyo.com): “Behavior change is not easy. But there’s a great TED talk that shows a simple way to influence people to do the right thing. And it leverages a principle we can all use in our daily lives.

“Alex Laskey spoke about how we can use the psychology of behavior change to get people to reduce their energy consumption.

“Grad students hung signs on people’s doorknobs, asking them to turn off their air-conditioning and turn on their fans. What varied was the message the signs used.

“Which message do you think was most effective?

‘Save money

‘Save the planet’

‘Be a good citizen.’

Actually, none of them were.

Nobody paid attention. Nobody turned off their air conditioners.

“But a fourth message did work:

‘Your neighbours are doing better.’

“When surveyed, 77% of your neighbors said that they turn off their air conditioners and turn on their fans. Please join them.

“This is Social Proof at work. Robert Cialdini, author of the classic book Influence, explained it in my interview with him: ‘People will be likely to say yes to your request if you give them evidence that people just like them have been saying yes to it, too.’

“We don’t like to think that we’re influenced by other people’s behavior but we all are. And one of the best ways to cause behavior change is to tap into that.”

My Comment: Kabbalah uses this great property of the influence of the environment on people for their correction. Under the influence of the environment, a person is ready to do even altruistic actions. That is why, when placed in the correct environment, he will be ready to submit himself to it without prior consent. So, instead of trying to influence a person, we need to create the right environment around him.
[111041]

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A Deluge Of Questions About The Convention In St. Petersburg

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do the  groups of tens need to do in the framework of preparation for the convention?

Answer: First of all, you need the materials for the convention so you can create a connection with what is happening there with all your might.

Question: What kind of environment, what kind of an atmosphere, do we need to create in the World Kli to help every friend have ready access to the convention, to raise all of us together to a new level?

Answer: Remember how you prepared for the birth of your child or your wedding, externally and internally. Understandably, the main thing here is inner preparation: “Where are we going? Towards connection. What else can we do to succeed in connecting and with this connection discover the Light, the characteristic of bestowal, which is discovered to the degree that we become equal to it?”

Ultimately I need to come to the convention completely ready, without expecting any surprises except for one, our connection, and nothing more. I don’t need new wisdom, I want connection. And with this I will feel the text with a new depth and in general everything will seem new to me, sparkling, and bright.

And on the contrary, if there won’t be connection, I must feel that I am left with nothing.

That is, we must see and understand that everything depends on connection, and connection depends on preparation.

Question: About whose connection should I be more concerned, my preparation or that of the friends in the  group of ten?

Answer: That of the friends. If we are speaking about spirituality, first of all I need to be concerned about the spiritual needs of the friends. This is called the “prayer of the many,” a prayer for the friends. It is said, “Whoever prays for his friend is answered first.”

Question: What will we require at the convention for a transition to a complete inner scream?

Answer: The preparation. Specifically we don’t scream because we are not prepared, we don’t add a “penny and another penny,” so that they will combine into one great scream. Instead of this we wait: “So, when will the breakthrough come already?” This will never happen without preparation.

Question: How can we avoid falling into a lack of participation at the convention?

Answer: This again depends on the atmosphere and the preparation. If the person is ready, then he apparently sinks into a force field that won’t readily let him go.

Question: Do we need to see a passage through the “Red Sea” at the convention in St. Petersburg?

Answer: And even Arvut standing before “Mount Sinai.”
[110818]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulamPeace in the World

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More About The Work In Groups Of Ten, For Women And Not Only…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At present I am found in a virtual group of ten that includes women from different regions with great time differences. What should we do?

Answer: A woman is exempt from all time-bound occupations! She can learn quietly and independently without any connection to other women. And when she has spare time she can be in connection with us through our Sviva Tova website, through a chat, Skype, and so forth.

Question: I heard that everyone needs to be with an inner mutual responsibility including the women for six minutes per hour, everyone is responsible for this time. Does that make sense?

Answer: I don’t know what to say; I didn’t say something like this. It’s forbidden for both women and men to do this. This is because you will be tense all the time and ultimately neglect everything. This process needs to be much more smooth and acceptable to our lives. Imagine an engineer who would stop the train for six minutes to be involved with spiritual work. This is hyperbole.

Each one of you needs to do it at a time that is convenient for her. It’s clear that it would be good to work according to the clock, but understand that you will be tense all the time. It’s a waste of nerves. And for what? Eventually this will lead to a nervous exhaustion, and instead of getting a good impression from spiritual work you will feel the burden of its obligation and be anxious all the time. It’s forbidden to do this!

Question: I heard that women, like men, must read articles by Rabash in their group of ten after the lesson or at another time.

Answer: Gather once per week when everyone is free without disturbing anything (the family and so forth) and read something. At home prepare some coffee, sit relaxed by the computer, and read an article together with everyone. This is pleasurable and this is good.

Question: Is it worthwhile to connect to groups of ten according to the same time zones?

Answer: If you connect with each other only on weekends and this is easy for you, then you can even take ten time zones, and if you cannot, then there is no need. Spiritual work needs to be relaxed! It needs to be as easy and systematic as possible!

The only thing that is not easy is the departure from the ego. We do everything else without effort. It’s possible to be in connection with everyone and to be lying relaxed on the couch because we are engaged in spiritual work. Therefore there is no reason for people of different regions with different times to be connected at the expense of their hours of work and sleep. A connection like this cannot last for long, for at the end of the matter the person will break. This has no connection to the work in the groups of tens.

It’s enough for  groups of tens to meet three times per week for 15 minutes. With us at Bnei Baruch in Petak Tikva, the  groups of tens meet for ten minutes after every morning lesson and this is all. If in your region there is the possibility of meeting for ten minutes in the evening and clarify something, even if this is through a virtual connection, this is good and is enough. This is the life of the  groups of tens.

Question: But we don’t meet physically, rather we communicate every evening, read an article and observe the time of six minutes. Everyone is sitting at work or just concentrates on thinking about the  groups of ten and this doesn’t disturb his work. Is it worthwhile to stop these exercises and to do what you said now?

Answer: I cannot advise a person to think about something foreign during work hours. I don’t know what his or her work involves. Perhaps it is complicated, dangerous, and illegal. You are taking everything that I say in a fanatical, irrational form.

There is no provision that a person must suffer from the spiritual work in which he is engaged. It is forbidden! The goal of creation is to enjoy, to benefit, only to bestow.
[110805]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 6

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Underground Water That Changes The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Freedom”:  For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. This is similar to the wheat sown in the ground, whose forces become apparent only through its environment, which is the soil, the rain, and the light of the sun…And as we have clarified above, only in the matter of the choice of environment is man’s reign over himself measured, and for this he should receive either reward or punishment.

We thus understand to what extent we have to worry about strengthening the environment in order to make it as big and as qualitative as possible, which means strong. It has to be invincible thanks to its size and quality, so no strange society or strange thoughts from respectable, influential people around the world, or large crowds will be able to affect us, our way, our goal, and our method.

The moment the feeling that our way just disappears, our connection with this process weakens a little even if we are not aware of it, and then to the same extent the upper Light weakens. Then a person loses “big time,” since he is not under the influence of the one force that can change his fate anymore.

So the only worthwhile engagement in life is to raise and strengthen the society. There is no freewill regarding anything else and there are no forces that can bring about any changes. The whole world will follow us if we keep our society on the right level. It is by the Light that Reforms that we draw upon our society that we manage everyone.

If there is no Light, then we immediately fall back into the path of suffering and return to the same path of corporeal life that manages the whole world. So we have to constantly raise our environment and expand it qualitatively, which is the only thing a person has. So integral education is meant to strengthen our vessel and to draw as many more new people as possible no matter if they are not totally aware of the method as long as they accept it and relate to it and get to know it.

Now, when it is “book week” in Israel, we have to invest in the public as much as we can, disregarding the expenses and the physical effort. Thus we invest in our own internality by raising our environment and strengthening it and its walls. Besides, we are also doing external work, outside our “walls,” by creating a different system of public relations and of bringing people closer to us, thus strengthening the public opinion.

The main thing, however, is still working on the connection between us since through it, in the network that connects all of humanity all over the world, like underground water, the Light that Reforms will spread and change people.
[109673]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/13

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Parting Words After The Convention

Dr. Michael LaitmanYou are deserving guys. You made a wonderful connection and can attain everything! But this requires seriousness from all of you.

Now we are dispersing. So in order for a person to not fall again into an everyday routine, he must seriously approach the question: “What can I do now to organize the learning process correctly in my region, in my group? How can I help all the others?”

This is the main thing. The person must seriously decide for himself, on what level he is going to hold a connection with everyone else, because everything is attained only through connection. Therefore the organization of a new more expansive and better connection is very important for us. Don’t forget all the friends,connect with each other, be concerned for each other all the time. With this the work of our method is supported.

Besides this, we must begin to be involved with dissemination. But do this wisely and not by “shooting from the hip.” For this it’s necessary to learn, to consult, to write serious and nice articles, then check them. We do not publish anything without censorship, not even my blog! You might think, what do our censors understand better than I about the ideology? They understand more! This is because they are familiar with the outer world; whereas I am not familiar with it. We don’t need to spoil our name; otherwise we will damage dissemination, meaning damage ourselves. There is no greater damage than the damage that is derived from excessive enthusiasm.

For everything there must be a precise and clear structure, it’s not a good idea to go out anywhere with your proposals before you have assured yourselves of support and approval. Sometimes you need to demand written approval for the group or from higher bodies since you are turning to various elements on our behalf. Everything must be very serious. I am no longer talking about your personal spiritual ascension; for by not carrying out these conditions, you are delaying your spiritual advancement and afterward you will wonder why this is happening.

You are involved with the most serious thing in life, which is also the one thing that depends on people. Everything else doesn’t depend on people. The Creator only plays with them, creating the illusion that they are doing something as if they are destroying something. They are not destroying anything; they are not correcting anything and are not doing anything. It’s very simple, in this way the ego is methodically being elevated, as if it’s ruining the world. This will continue until we all get sick and tired of it and then people will be able to pass to correction of the ego.

And we want to do this in our way, quickly. This is our entire function. Therefore I strongly urge you; you are very serious guys and suddenly fall into childishness with some kind of demands. First try to organize everything nicely and well, and after that you will make demands of that structure that you have organized.

And in general, everything went very successfully. I see a huge potential, serious people with great experience and high ability who know with what they are dealing, where they are entering, and in what way they are advancing.
[110799]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 6

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