Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Spiritual Mantra

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: From your spiritual height can you recommend to us what would be preferable to do for the sake of unity? The years are going by.

Answer: If you are always thinking about unity in order to discover the only force (the Creator) in it and feel pleasure within it that you summon through your actions, then there is nothing more that needs to be done.

If my thoughts are directed towards this, that in all of my actions in connection to others I discover the Creator in order to feel the pleasure that He feels, then with this I build a vessel (Kli) and summon its filling with the characteristic of bestowal and love, meaning the right state of these two objectives. There is nothing else in the world. We only need to be involved in this; there is no importance to anything else. Whatever you do, whatever you receive, you must aspire to this one goal.

In general there is no obligation to tune into this only in a group or a dissemination event. You can do this wherever you want.

As is written, (Deuteronomy 6:4-6:5) Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might. Whether you are sitting or walking, going to sleep or waking up, are at home or outside of it, you must remember this.

The prayer, “Shema Israel” (“Hear, O Israel”) is the same mantra that determines the most essential intention in all a person’s activities. Therefore, it is considered to be the central prayer; even though nobody knows what it was written for.
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From the Conversation at Sochi Convention 6/9/14

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The Importance Of The Convention In America

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the importance of the convention in New Jersey?

 Answer:  There is no importance in that it is precisely in New Jersey. That just happens to be the place where we have become used to holding conventions. We have already been there, so there we feel good and comfortable.

 However, in general, the convention in America is very important. It also accompanies my meetings with leaders of Jewish communities, organizations, and movements, which are also very important.

 Other than that, we know, feel, and hear about how the world is changing, and there is especially a great change in relation to Jews. Our role has become increasingly prominent and in demand. Let us hope that we will be able to come to this convention in a state where our friends and students will listen to us, including those English speakers who participate with us in all kinds of ways and levels from all around the world, and that we will be able to sweeten the development and try to bring it to a good path, as much as it is possible, from “in due time” to “I will hasten it.” This can be done only if that English-speaking Kli will accept this great mission. Every place in the world, at least in the English-speaking world, should try to do the same as what we do in Hebrew, in Israel.

 I very much hope that it will not end at the convention, but that we will keep working before and after the convention. Also, I very much hope that we will accept this important work that has now been cast upon us, which has befallen us, with a lot of importance, with awareness of how important and unique our role is, and especially that the American Kli will become like a pipe to the whole world. This is because their language, approach, and ability is truly unlimited, and we very much need it.

 I very much look forward to bringing a much broader public, which is not that connected to us, closer to us at the convention, that they will understand what we need to do, what the correct implementation of the wisdom of Kabbalah is. We have more work to do in this, and so I have great hope.

 I am very grateful to all the people who are engaged in the convention preparation. According to the importance they feel for the convention, I thus certainly expect it to be incredibly strong. It will be the last in a series of conventions that we will be holding in the American continent.

Therefore, I also very much hope that all our friends who can be in contact and support of it, not only from Israel, but from the whole world, will join in and support it, and we will turn the New Jersey Convention into a World Convention. 

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This Is How The Method Is Created

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are conducting integral circles (connection workshops), but we don’t use external forms of information (such as publicity and marketing). This takes people out of the group because they don’t agree with the form of dissemination, even though they agree with the path. At this junction a problem is created: A person wants to express his needs, but doesn’t get feedback from the group.

Answer: Our form of dissemination changes all the time. If you ask me, I also don’t know in what form we will disseminate tomorrow, for this is not written anywhere. The wisdom of Kabbalah is purely a practical science.

A person by the name Adam suddenly discovered the system of the world 5,774 years ago. He found its mutual connections and the manner in which it is possible to enter into comprehensive integrality and attain it more and more deeply.

He, and others after him described this, and what they didn’t describe remains for us to discover and describe. You must enter the spiritual state through attaining the inner system of nature and describe the mutual connection between all of its parts.

Presently, we are in a stage about about which neither Adam nor Abraham nor anyone in the world has known or heard. It would seem we question who are we in comparison with those great scientists who discovered the depths of nature. However, what we are doing today was not under their control.

So, by ourselves from our experiences and advancing as if in a fog, we discover everything through the method of trial and error. We describe our steps each time, and after that, we cancel them and describe them again and again more correctly. This is how every science develops.

This is the true way and it is not necessary to suffer, to flee, and to be ashamed of it. I keep repeating in lessons that, in the meantime, I don’t know how to go in the right direction because this has not yet been in the world! There has not been a correction from the lowest point of our world where an entire group attains spirituality.

This happened once in the group of Rabbi Shimon and his students who wrote The Book of Zohar and then only in an embryo, a bud.

Only now in our condition, in the whole mess that is happening around us, we must begin to create and describe our method. So, I urge everyone all the time, “Write!” Don’t erase anything old, let others learn from your steps, how you went, how you erred, and you how discovered something again, and again corrected it.

We need to give people the wisdom of connection so that it will spread like wildfire, which is already happening. Our project is the largest. You must not be distracted by nonsense. We need to be involved with this where we continually magnify our work, our mission. Everything begins from this.
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From a conversation at the Sochi Convention 6/9/14

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Control Your Thoughts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should you do if during a workshop material problems cover you to such a degree that you don’t know how to escape them?

Answer: For each new state, it doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative, it needs to be clarified so that a person can think to himself: “I remain in the previous direction of thoughts.” This is necessary.

You can’t imagine what comes over you during the time of the morning lesson. There are 300-400 men sitting before me and a large number of people connected by Internet. If I weren’t successful in organizing my inner thoughts, then it is unknown what could have happened in the lesson, what could have passed to my students, what a waste, what a mess!

Thoughts can be different: sometimes stupid, sometimes confused, sometimes scary, like in a horror movie. They might be completely out of place: about problems at home, with children, problems connected to sex. Anything is possible! It doesn’t depend on age or on any different factors. All of these thoughts are sent to us so that we will process them.

I cannot think about controlling myself or you. You are, after all, at the beginning of the path.

If I don’t control my thoughts, then my lesson won’t be worth anything. Instead of raising the students, I lower them because they receive everything through me. That is the responsibility of the moderator.

Imagine that you are a body of a mother and an embryo is developing in it, the most precious thing to you. Would you agree to it receiving nourishment that is harmful or incorrect? Therefore, all the states experienced must be controlled.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 3

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What One Should Fear

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I am terribly afraid because I feel the threat of disasters and wars throughout the entire world. What can I do for the Creator, for the world, to prevent the impending disasters?

Answer: The Creator is independent; He has no need for anything. What can you give to Him if He is whole? Our role is to help the world. This is what we do. We learn what must be done for the world so that it will discover the Creator.

There is no reason to fear war. We don’t need to work from fear, while this is useful, but the fear must be different. It is not about what will happen with me and with the world but that I cannot perform the role for which I was born.

So, you don’t have to be afraid. Baal HaSulam writes that a third or even a  fourth world war is possible, but I don’t think that this is so true anymore. Now, we are approaching such a level where everything is changing. We must be intensely involved with dissemination,09 not due to fear, but because this is truly the most necessary work for the Creator.
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From the Conversation at Sochi Convention 6/9/14

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You Cannot Do Without Discussions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It seems like our unity gets a bit lost due to endless discussions and training sessions. But the strength is specifically in unity!

This is because, by and large, besides the sincerity  we convey to people through our attitude, they don’t need anything. I participated in a dissemination event and I don’t even know how to explain what happened there. It was magical!

Answer: This is the magical effect of the Upper Light! Sometimes, you go out to the general public and you have a feeling that something is not working, it doesn’t go, everything is so phony, and then everyone splits up and goes away. Then, suddenly, people approach you, almost hug you and say warm words. This is the influence of the Upper Light. That is how everything will be.

I don’t think that discussions, training sessions and so forth, lead to anything. They are superfluous. This is how the method is created. The essence itself is crystallized, and 90% of the things that are unnecessary are thrown aside.

You tried something and tossed it aside. With this, you scrutinize all of your tools. Then, you gather those that you need. Those that you don’t need, you leave aside for a while. After that, go back, collect and connect them. They come back just like in ruminants that chew their cud.

First, you process your actions and leave them for a while. After that, you go over them again and again, until you really use all of your previous garbage. However, they are no longer left-over garbage, but the most valuable means.

Ultimately, you constantly connect theory, practice, and discussion anyway. All of this is necessary only if you don’t approach them artificially. So, when a need for discussion appears, it is necessary to arrange for it.
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From the Conversation at Sochi Convention 6/9/14

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An Astonishing Transformation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to transform the desires of the general public from materialistic needs to spiritual ones?

Answer: First, we need to explain to people that in any case we are looking for inner fulfillment. Even when we just buy some object or organize something for ourselves, for a friend, or for the family, we still experience pleasure. It is possible to measure it, perhaps in the amount of means or in the form of efforts invested, but it is always in feeling.

Therefore feelings are the main thing. We work for them, make efforts, live, and raise children. These are feelings of the self, of life, of success.

Second, all of us are under the influence of an environment that obliges us to measure success in life through material attainments: a car, an apartment, clothes, a prestigious home or vacation spot. But basically all of this is required only to feel some kind of fulfillment within me. After all, a person doesn’t stuff the house, clothes, or car into himself, they bring  a feeling within himself through which he wants to be fulfilled.

So we need to create possibilities for fulfillment like these for everyone so that they will be supplied with what is necessary. Together with this, they will not suffer if others are better off, pursue something unimaginable and ephemeral, or constantly reproach themselves because the neighbor’s grass is greener.

People will feel self-satisfaction. They will be released from the influence of the masses. Someone’s external success will stop poisoning life for him, and he will stop the pursuit of unnecessary frills.

We must explain to people that a person’s ideological mechanism depends upon his feelings, and we can control them. This means that we teach everyone how to be satisfied in every situation.

I will reveal a little secret. There is no spiritual world. To the same degree that we agree completely with what is happening with us, this world becomes spiritual.

We become Hafetz Hesed, meaning we want nothing for ourselves and attain the characteristic of Bina. Through transforming this to bestowal, we attain the level of Hochma. And Hochma and Bina together give us the level of Keter, the highest level, Olam Ein Sof (the world of Infinity). So it is not the world that surrounds us that is changed, rather our feeling of the world is changed. This is because the Light is at absolute rest and everything depends only on our correction.

To a person who is entangled in his materialistic problems, we explain that in principle he can be happy every moment of his life because our sensations are desires. And if he will fulfill them in the right way (we teach him to do this), then he will be happier than the most powerful, richest, famous, and successful person in the whole world.

We give him the possibility to be fulfilled. And this is the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of fulfillment. Basically, our method amounts to this: that the moment a person begins to be satisfied with collective fulfillment instead of personal ones, he will immediately begin to feel himself in the upper world.
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From the Conversation at Sochi Convention 6/9/14

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A Point Of Contact With The Public

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In working with the people, through discovering and fulfilling their desires, with this do we activate the way of accelerated development, “I will hasten it”?

Answer: We don’t discover and don’t fulfill the desires of the general public. We only create the point of contact with them.

When we gather together to go out to a dissemination event, we must feel that in the connection between us the Creator is found in potential. But He is in a concealed state because the Kli (vessel) in which He will be discovered is the external public.

When we gather together with Him inside, we become Galgalta ve Eynayim , the upper part of the Partzuf. The masses are the lower part of the Partzuf. Within us, in Galgalta ve Eynayim, the Creator cannot be revealed. He can be revealed only when we are in contact with the AHP, with the lower part, with the external public. It is specifically this contact that we are looking for.

We must realize that this is our work because we can only attain contact with the external public in our world. Within us exists a spark that yearns for the Creator, and so by concentrating on this, we can create His potential discovery among us. When we enter into contact with the external public (with the AHP), we specifically create this path and we reveal the possibility that He will pass into them.

Then we see an amazing result. People don’t even understand why joy, fulfillment, and wholeness suddenly take hold of them. They will feel that they have no need for anything in life, but only this. The Upper Light pervades everything.

But we must create the unity in which the Creator is found in potential, because Galgalta ve Eynaim cannot realize more than contact with the AHP, with the external public. With this, we feel that we are giving the Creator the possibility of being revealed in them as much as possible. Nothing exists here on our account.

So, we no longer think that we need a certain number of people to convey some kind of information to, etc. We talk with people, we arrange some events for them, but inside we always need to remain in a state of unity with the Creator. This is the main thing. And even if externally we are automatically working with the public in any case, the effect will be amazing.
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From a conversation at the Sochi Convention, 6/9/14

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Qualitative Effect

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When going out to disseminate we seriously depend more on external results: being liked, not being liked, success, failure. We are missing any direction of thought as to why we are doing it. The goal is constantly elusive.

Answer: There is a lack of unity within the group in which the Creator exists or any vital necessity of discovering Him, the point of connection of the group with the Creator. You must reveal our method to others without any personal interest, with complete bestowal. For you are indeed coming and presenting the higher power that is needed to correct them. Everything that follows is derived from that, everything comes from it, and you are a conduit for its transfer. And so nobody understands why this effect is obtained. The effect is a law of nature.

I suppose that we have two problems. But it is indeed impossible to demand their immediate resolution. This will come with time.

First of all, little attention is paid to the consolidation of the group from which you are going forward, for within it the Creator is discovered, and you are really presenting Him to the external public. It is impossible to be passive here because you are carrying out the work of bringing the higher power to the masses, and it carries out all the rest. This doesn’t mean that you should immediately relax and release yourself from any responsibility; rather, you must feel this power of unity called the Creator within yourselves and give Him the opportunity to work on the person.

Specifically in this point of contact of the Creator with the external public, when you present Him to them through your efforts, you begin to discover Him. You lack this point; the Creator is not revealed anywhere, but only in the unity that you organize. The unity gives us a qualitative effect.

The you won’t have any problems. You job is done: You brought the Creator down to the people and revealed His vessel (Kli) that He preparesd through the Surrounding Light. Whatever results there may be, ultimately it will always be positive. This contact is very important.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 3

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It Is Not Easy To Love The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I know that many of our friends have major health problems, but I want to ask about my mother. She is a friend of our group and very invested in it. In the last two years she has been very ill and suffers so much that you can’t bear to see it.

Whatever we do, nothing helps. This causes anger at the Creator and interferes when you go out and want to convey His love to people. I don’t know how to handle this.

Answer: I understand that it is difficult to speak about love for the Creator when it is clear to us that everything comes from Him. Certainly if we receive great blows of fate, we are not prepared to justify Him.

This is because these are two mutually exclusive feelings: injustice and misfortune and immediate justification. One extinguishes the other because we don’t comprehend how it can be that from a good and beneficent power suddenly all the problems and sufferings of humanity emerge.

We have not yet reached a state where we can see the truth. We are not in a dimension in which the opposites are connected and there is no contradiction between the sufferings of a person and the omnipotence and uniqueness of the Creator.

This is a bit like the paradox: is an electron a particle or a wave? It seems to be both this and that. It depends upon the observer, how he looks at it. And what is the person himself? We don’t know what he is himself. It is the same thing here.

In any case, it is necessary to act: Go to the doctors, carry out their recommendations. And despite all the contradictions, my advice is to turn to the Creator. On the one hand, ask for help for your mother (in general, this is your need). On the other hand, ask the Creator to help you, not to understand Him, but to depart from the state where you condemn Him.

Question: Indeed for many of our friends throughout the world there are difficult problems like these.

Answer: Nobody can guarantee that we will develop in exceptional goodness. Once, ten or twelve years ago, I was getting ready to travel to Moscow to give lectures and disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah. But one day before the trip I was in an accident. As a result, half of my liver was removed, I underwent a number of operations for my lungs, and in addition to that my leg was broken.

Looking at it logically, I needed to fly to Moscow to begin dissemination there, and look how they stopped me. So what is there to do after this, stop everything? We don’t know where we are going. But the blows do what they do.

Question: How much can the support of the group, the world Kli, help our friends in situations like these?

Answer: Basically, we say: “Let’s pray, let’s think.”, but essentially these words are not worth anything. Only our combined efforts give results, not words and exclamations.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 3

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