Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Contact With The Audience

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does internal contact with the audience mean?

Answer: Creating internal contact means feeling the audience as naturally as a mother feels her child. A father feels him through his head and a mother through the umbilical cord. This connection remains.

In the spiritual world, intrauterine spiritual development of the fetus leads to birth, but birth is not a departure from the higher Partzuf but an even greater connection with it.

In our world we are detached from our parents, from our mother, and we begin to develop independently, growing distant from her. But in the spiritual world, no! We get even closer, clothing the higher Partzuf: on NHY, on HGT, on HBD.

This means that in the spiritual world an even greater deepening happens within the Upper Partzuf; it is not birth outside of it, but an even greater entry into it.
[140555]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 1

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Convention In Toronto “Day One” – 08.04.14

Convention in Toronto “Day One,” Meal 1

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The Main Thing Is Preparation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We waste a lot of time rehearsing for an appearance before vacationers. Does the time of preparation have to be some kind of balance between adaptation of artistic proficiency and our internal unity?

Answer: I suppose that this is not necessary. It is an amateur performance and you can’t surpass professional performers. You only have inner energy, warmth, and spontaneity, these attract and attune people to you. If you have that, the method works. And if not, then of course you will fail.

This is because you are doing spiritual work, and in this work the most important thing is preparation.

Question: During the event itself, where is the Creator most of the time, with the audience or with our friends? To what must I be directed, towards the audience or the reaction of my friends?

Answer: I must be together with my friends as a single complete whole that is now conveying a message to the external public. Even when I go out to them alone as a representative of my group, I feel that I am still within the group and get spiritual force from it which is what I put into them. I must feel myself as a responsible representative of my group, transmitting the Upper Light.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 1

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Find The Formula For Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanHappiness is not measured by wealth or by the size of one’s house, not with how many electrical appliances there are in the kitchen, nor by success in business. It is impossible to measure it with material values.

First of all, the feeling of happiness is not subjective; it encompasses whole groups of people. On the one hand, there is a measurement of integrality in the index of happiness: If everyone around me is miserable, I cannot be happy.

Let’s say I can feel strong, this is also temporary because this also requires confirmation from some part of the society. The happiness could be felt in collective unity when there is support and agreement between the people.

Secondly, even though the person wants to achieve what has been taught by society: money, status, power, fame, and so forth, essentially he subconsciously is seeking a feeling of happiness. But since they don’t teach him this, he remains miserable all of his life with a feeling of a lack of real fulfillment. In his latter days of life, when he looks at the past, he understands that there was no benefit to his life: not for himself, not for his children or grandchildren; they, like him, will not be happy.

So finding the formula for happiness and teaching it to others is the most important thing in life. Moreover, if you don’t teach others, then you cannot be happy yourself, because the feeling of happiness, as studies have shown, depends on this being felt among the people around you. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is involved with.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 1

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Without Political Benefit

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During our roundtable discussions about our problems, it is possible that questions and advice to search for political solutions might arise, i.e., that we need to change the government or the party for another one. How is it possible to prevent these kinds of conversations and how should we respond?

Answer: The correction of the world that we suggest in no way takes into account working with any organizations or any government or social elements since all of them are egoistic and directed towards receiving reward in the form of money, honor, fame, titles, etc. It is very difficult for us to work in a mutual way with each other because we are made of different “material.”

When you come to them and they understand that you want to profit, they know how much you will pay them, and they suggest the services or the assistance according to that amount.

But when completely different units of measure of work, efforts and success appears, then it is very hard for them to understand. Even as adversaries, they can get along with each other because they know and understand each other, but with us, it is not so.

And even if they could understand us, those are not the same methodologies to correct the world with. Therefore, we need to rely only on the education of the masses.

If there is some leader, some party that can help us in mobilizing the masses, then for a short period of our development in the educating of the masses, we can probably use them.

But in principle, all of humanity is before us. I don’t advise entering into any high government circles with roundtables because I don’t believe any correct or good contact between us can be created that way.

During all of the history of our development, we see clearly that those who help us do so because they know our goal and are willing to share in it without any political or other benefit.
[140317]
From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day Two” 7/12/14, Lesson 3

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Convention In Mexico “Day Three” – 08.03.14

Convention in Mexico “Day Three,” Lesson 4

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Convention in Mexico “Day Three,” Workshop 3

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Convention In Mexico “Day Two” – 08.02.14

Convention in Mexico “Day Two,” Lesson 2

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Convention in Mexico “Day Two,” Lesson 3

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Convention in Mexico “Day Two,” Workshop 2

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Two Approaches, Two Results

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are involved with dissemination of the integral method in businesses: We developed a preliminary program of five lessons, we arranged practical work, and concluded with a unity event. The success was amazing!

At the same time, the group arranged similar workshops in another region of the nation, but they got a completely different results: People whom they worked with suddenly had a negative reaction and ceased all contact with our friends. I would like to understand, is this success or failure?

Answer: Why were there two dramatically different results? It’s evident that a some groups bear Light and others don’t.

We have to understand why this happens. In fact, it is not important what we say. You can speak beautifully, logically, and quote the sages, but all to no effect. And you can barely pronounce the words and people will listen to you as to a child who is muttering something and we admire him. This is because he ignites a unique channel and love streams to people through it.

This needs to be learned. There is no doubt that in a group that has not been successful this channel has not been ignited. It is necessary to check if these people have the right preparation, study correctly, and connect with other groups.

The first level of examination is whether we go to events with connection and unity between us, meaning with such a state where we gather the upper Light within us, and then it will begin to work through us.

In the future we will begin to feel how the Light works and will determine which part of it we bring to people. Suppose that today we are igniting them with the pressure of the characteristic of Nefesh or Ruach, or even Neshama, all of this we can measure precisely, follow it and use it. And people will perceive this.

In this way, a harmonious system of mutual cooperation is created between us, where all of its elements are found in full maximum balance. For all of us can feel each other so much that nobody pressures anyone, nobody expects anything, and everything rotates simultaneously at different ends of this system, like a well-oiled machine.

If we yearn for this in our group, we will eliminate negative external results because the upper Light will start streaming through us to people, and then it will continue to work.
[140512]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 1

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The Way Of “He Doesn’t Want To”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For us veterans there is the good fortune of watching the young people in our ranks taking upon themselves the lion’s share of concerns (internal and external) for dissemination of the integral method. They evoke admiration.

But together with this, a bitter taste remains of those people who have studied for some time and have gotten accustomed to another way of study and other mutual relationships. They cannot find their place in this system. So the group is in some kind of conflict. How should we perceive this?

Answer: I understand you very well, because I myself belong to this type of people. It was very difficult for me to recognize this, that the Creator can be attained only through practical connection and unity with people like me.

I grew up in science and I was its fan, so I thought that it was necessary to perform everything through the mind. When I studied The Study of the Ten Sefirot and other sources, I “swallowed” them and constantly digested them within me with all of the juices.

It seemed to me that this would help me and  that only in this way would I attain this wisdom. That is how it continued for a number of years. So I understand these people well. But what can be done? Even for me it was difficult to change myself, because I was created differently: closed, distant from others, kind of  a “bookworm.”

Question: Is it worthwhile to push them imperceptibly a bit to participate in dissemination or is it preferable to leave them alone?

Answer: It is forbidden to leave them alone. They must feel both through bitter envy and through sweet envy that you have what they don’t have and that you will attain the upper world specifically thanks to what you are doing, and they won’t.

You need to help them this way, but don’t deliberately poke them in their face, rather with subtlety, show that they must participate physically in this, if not actively, then with their desires, even those who are opposed: He doesn’t want to, but in spite of it all he participates. So it is said that in spiritual work a person is motivated by envy.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 1

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Heavenly “Milk”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we come to the suffering of Shechina from our state?

Answer: Many of us have pets: a dog or cat. They know who their owners are and they follow them around the house all day long. Wherever their owners go, their pets go there too. But if their owner grieves or cries, the pets don’t “feel” the owners’ tears because their desires are at a much lower level. In the same way, the suffering of the Shechina are at a higher level, and we simply are unable to sense it.

Moreover, if I never suffered in this life, I cannot sympathize with others. For example, the majority of people have never experienced famine. They never starved. For our generation it is normal. It’s quite rare that someone has no food at all for several days in a row. It sometimes happens that we are hungry because we had no time to eat, but none of us ever experienced real starvation. That’s why for us it is impossible to understand what those people who have absolutely nothing to eat go through. We cannot share their pain.

We can’t feel the Shechina’s sufferings because Her pain is generated by a desire to give everything She has, but there is nobody who wants to take it. Subconsciously, people suffer because of their inability to exist at the level of the world of Infinity, but they don’t acknowledge or realize this fact. However, we have to rise to this level.

The Shechina’s affliction belongs to the next level. Can you imagine your dog crying when you are upset? Let’s say, your friend died and you are crying and mourning. Can your dog share your pain? No! The dog can only sense that you are in a bad mood, not more than that.

This explains why we are incapable of connecting with the Shechina. If not for the Upper Light that develops the desire through the four stages of the direct Light – from the initial inanimate level to the vegetative, animate and speaking stages, we won’t be ever able to climb to the top. It is the Light that does it for us; we are not the ones who do it. If we want to rise from our animate desire to the speaking level called “man” (Adam, similar to the Creator and the Shechina), we need the Upper Light to help us.

However, after the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, including the highest step of the animate desire (a human being, the last variation of “monkeys’ that belong to this realm) were created, the Upper Light stopped the process.

In order to rise to the next step, we have to be the ones who trigger the Light! Then, It will develop our desires to the next level, because a desire is the only material of creation. The desires of the next stage will be the desires of the Shechina, the revelation of the Creator, the property of bestowal. We have to attain this level because our job is to attract the Upper Light onto ourselves.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah steps in because it is a methodology of attracting the Upper Light, the system of self-development that allows us to seek the external help of the Upper; however, it happens only if we are the ones who trigger the Light.

If we don’t seek the Light, it’s similar to a cow that suffers because of an excess of milk; when she cannot carry it inside herself any longer and milk flows from her udders, and there is nobody to milk her.

However, the Upper Light continues pouring, but we don’t sense It inside our Kelim (vessels), but rather around them. We cannot receive the Light into ourselves because we don’t yet have similarity of properties with it. We don’t want to bestow or receive for the sake of bestowal; this is why the Upper “milk” pours all around us and we feel very bad. We realize that there is abundance around us, but not inside us.

So now the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed. It never happened before, but it is happening now! All that took place before our time is called the “forefathers.” These are the steps that humanity had to go through in order to prepare the methodology of correction for us. Today, we must implement this methodology in life.

Kabbalah speaks about becoming similar to the Upper Light with the help of daily activities and by building relationships among us that exist at the spiritual level. If we start doing it, the Light will impact us to the extent of our efforts.

Then gradually, the drops of “milk” that Dvinity dispenses will penetrate into us, enlighten and correct us; thus, we’ll change. As a result, we’ll aspire to rise to the level of “Adam” and will want the same things as the Upper Light, Shechina: we’ll aim at receiving for the sake of bestowal; we’ll strive to be “Bnei Eichal”, i.e. the sons who comprise the Upper Kli (vessel).

This state can be reached only by attracting the Upper Light that manifests in us only through our similarity with It in everything: in the way we interact with each other, disseminate, and to the degree of our exertions to correct the world through ourselves.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day One” 7/11/14, Lesson 2

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