Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Symbol Of The Current Reality: The Question Mark

Dr. Michael LaitmanHumanity must first get to know itself on the level of the still, the vegetative, and then the animate level of nature. Therefore, we have to exist as animals first, and then as people in this world, we began to develop industry, commerce, technology, and science, so that eventually we would understand that all this doesn’t work and that we will not decipher the meaning of life this way.

We engage in something down here on this earth: adults, children, and animals.  That’s the way we live, but what is this life for? Is there anything beyond this life? This is what we begin to ask when we grow and go through several phases and ages of evolution and we find no answer.

Eventually we reach a crisis that pressures us through troubles and problems. It doesn’t only affect people and human society but also the still level, the environment, plants, and animals. All the problems reach us through them.

We reach a state in which we ask about the meaning of life, not out of curiosity, or a desire to discover our upper source—where we came from and why—but simply out of despair and the desire to receive pleasure in this empty life that brings us no joy.

Humanity advances and reaches a general crisis that pressures us and obliges us to ask questions: What is this life about? Why do we live this way? We all know that when life goes by without any troubles or worries, we don’t ask many questions. But the moment we encounter problems, we immediately begin to ask.

Thus we realize that we have no choice and that we have to connect in order to know the meaning of life, just as the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us. If we put the pieces of the puzzle together, we will understand what is going on in and behind the picture itself, who manages and supports it, and why He does all that.

Kabbalists penetrate this picture and ascend above time. They tell us that everything depends on the attainment of the Creator. The only problem in this life is attaining the Creator, looking for Him, making contact with Him, discovering Him, understanding Him, and being in direct dialogue with Him. I turn to the Creator, He answers, turns to me, and I understand what He wants from me.

If we attain this state, all our problems will be solved. We will understand what is going on and how to manage everything. The main thing is that we will know how to ascend above this life to an upper level. But in order to do that, we have to reveal the Creator. So the current crisis is only meant to bring us to that.

We think that it is a crisis, but the word “crisis” in Greek means rebirth. So we shouldn’t take this crisis so dramatically, but rather expect it to bring us to a new beginning, as long as we understand and know how to relate to it.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3

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A Fragment Of An Ideal Dream

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Kabbalists say that it is not worthwhile to wait and tolerate the crisis; instead it is necessary to hasten time. It is not necessary to wait until nature itself will evolve for tens or hundreds of years and our life will end without anything, again to be replaced generation after generation. If we have already entered a state of crisis, we can hasten the time through efforts we invest in our development.

Instead of life forcing us to develop, learn, and change ourselves, we can change ourselves voluntarily by our own efforts. Everything depends upon the society I am in.

I must enter into a group that will nourish me energetically, push me forward, and hasten the process. I will take an example from a society that is developing in the right way to attain the goal and the discovery of the Creator, which gives awakening and stimulation and supplies great support.

Then I won’t have any difficulties, as I will also want to develop together with it, and so I will develop. The main thing is to enter into the right environment. So the Kabbalists determined rules for us according to which it is necessary to build this right environment and to exist in it in order to hasten the time.

We must develop from state to state all the time. This ladder has 125 levels. I stand below the bottom and want to rise to the first level, to the second, third, and every level above, growing more and more. For this, I must resemble a higher level, and this is possible by connecting with others more and more.

Ultimately I must return to a linked and unified picture in which all of us are connected as if assembling a puzzle together. Needless to say, connections like these are a pipe dream in the distant future. We can already take some fragment of this ideal dream and begin to work with it, building within it a corrected mini-world.

This world is called a mini-group. If we take ten people and build one complete connection between us, then this will be called a group. If we can connect as one, then we rise to the first spiritual level.

But to rise to the second level is more difficult. For this we need either to increase our quantity a hundredfold (x 100) or among those ten people, we need to attain a connection ten times more intense than the previous connection.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3

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Practical Ascent On The Spiritual Ladder

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe practical ascent on the spiritual ladder from level to level is realized in this way. Suppose we gather ten people and a mutual rejection force of one kilo operates. If we overcome this rejection, then we rise to the first level.

On the first level we are ten people, as before, but the hatred between us has grown to minus ten kilograms instead of minus one kilogram. This means that it could be that with continued ascent, we will need to work with greater numbers of people. This could be in relation to quality and it could be both in quantity and quality.

A group is some quantity of people who take an obligation upon themselves to be connected as one person with one heart. If we are ready for this, then according to this goal, which we may not have yet achieved, we are already called a Kabbalistic group. The moment we reach the first degree of connection as one, immediately the upper Light is discovered and the Creator is revealed within our connection.

We have worked hard on our ego and have attained this first level, the weakest Light of Nefesh  (Ohr Ha Nefesh) (Light of Soul). After that an even greater egoistic desire is revealed to us that we must work on. Suddenly between us there is a blazing hatred and differences of opinion that we must overcome through even more difficult work. And when we connect, the Ohr Ha Ruach  (Light of Spirit) is revealed.

After this an even greater ego is awakened in us, which in order to overcome and connect, it is necessary to give even greater effort. That is how we discover the Ohr Ha Neshama (Light of Soul), and after this also Haya (the last correction of Malchut) and then Yechida.

The ego grows all the time and we overcome it by connecting more closely and we attain greater and greater revelation of the Creator. These levels are called: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida—NRNHY.

As the ego continues to grow, the work becomes more and more difficult, we are more and more detached from each other, and then we are able to connect to an even greater degree. This is what work in a group is like.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3

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The Group Is My Voice

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is my dialogue with the Creator connected to a group?

Answer: Through the group I learn the language by which the Creator speaks to me. What I receive through the world is conveyed to me in the language of Kabbalah. Yet I am not ready to answer the Creator by myself because I am not ready to create the world and influence it.

The Creator creates the reality within me, in my brain and emotions, and so I feel the world and myself. This is how the Creator created reality and speaks to me.

So that I will be able to answer Him, I need a different language, my private language. The speech is created with the help of the five parts of the lungs, and five articulations of the mouth, tongue, palate, and throat. There are also different groups of sounds depending on the pronunciation: teeth, palate, throat, lips, and tongue.

The mechanism of speech is a very unique system. It is not by chance that the level of Adam (man) is called the “speaking.” Our brain and our mechanism of speech are tightly connected. Through the throat, the lungs, and the mouth, I convey to others, the thoughts that I have in my brain. And others are able to hear them. This means that there are two separate mechanisms: one for speech and the other, which is completely different, for hearing. These are very profound matters.

I receive the entire picture of reality from the Creator through my five senses, which are seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling, and I then answer Him. But how am I ready to answer Him if all of my senses work on the basis of receiving information? How should I react to His turning towards me?

I cannot do this by myself, but only by means of a unique Kli (vessel) that I have built for myself called integral desire. This obliges me to bend my ego and connect with the friends, which is completely against my nature.

Even so, I try to do this, and in this way, I build an additional sense through which I can converse with the Creator. This will become my spiritual mouth, and then the Creator will hear me. He speaks with me by way of the entire world within which I am found. And I speak with Him through the integral sense, which is the group. I have no other mechanism through which I can convey information to the Creator.

When I am within the group and connected to it, I activate my inner senses. They begin to activate not my physical senses, like seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, but all of my desires and all of my thoughts. It follows that when I am included in a group, through it I fully activate all of myself and all of my inner aspirations.

Through the center of the group, I send my complete likeness to the Creator, just as He shows me a complete picture of the world and myself through the group in which are integrated all kinds of thoughts and various sensations. I speak with the Creator, “out loud.”

If I were to receive from the Creator the picture that I send to Him by way of the center of the group, I would see that this is also a picture of the world. Indeed this is my reaction to what He arranges for me in my life. The whole essence of the impressions and experiences of myself and the world, from all the experience that I have gathered, passes through the center of the group and is absorbed by the Creator.

That is how we begin to carry on a dialogue. The Creator turns to me in the form of the entire world, including the group and myself, and I turn to Him through the center of the group.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 2

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We Should Not Let Kabbalah Fall into Concealment Again

Dr. Michael LaitmanThroughout its entire history, humanity has advanced due to its egoism. It started 14 billion years ago at the time of the Big Bang after which inanimate matter began developing. Later, plants and animals appeared on the face of Earth. However, now in the 21st century, we are approaching the speaking level.

 

This is why we find ourselves in a major, integral crisis that involves all spheres of our life. We cannot live in peace with our spouses, children, bosses at work, friends, or neighbors, nobody! Even with ourselves!

Hence, we feel absolutely miserable. All the smart and super-complex systems that have been built won’t help us because human society is not balanced with the rest of nature.

There is a gap between humans and nature because the latter is integral, whereas we remain individualists. In other words, there is a “plus” on behalf of nature, and our part, on the contrary, is a “minus.” This difference is so huge that we cannot enjoy our lives. No matter how hard we try, we won’t be able to escape dramatic problems that eventually will unfold.

That’s why in the course of history, the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed from the people, waiting for the time when humanity developed its egoism to a certain level. Starting with ancient Babylon and up to our time (for approximately 3,500 years), Kabbalah was a hidden science.

Humanity progressed without having a clue about the wisdom of Kabbalah. Because humanity failed to implement Kabbalistic knowledge in ancient Babylon, we had to continue advancing our egoism up until this time. Currently, the wisdom is revealed. At this time, we are in the second point of the revelation of Kabbalah . We are the first ones who study it, thus we are receiving a chance to correct ourselves.

If we don’t succeed, our egoistic advancement will proceed for a little longer. Then, the wisdom of Kabbalah will again be concealed for a certain period of time during which terrible catastrophes will take place, such as a third world war, numerous disasters, etc. Afflictions will continue, unfolding until awful tragedies trigger a new revelation of Kabbalah. Complete desperation will eventually force humanity to implement this knowledge.

This is our current state. That’s why we have built a system that allows us to study, implement, and disseminate the methodology. Today, the entire humanity represents a new Babylon. It means that we have to work on our correction because it is the only way to change ourselves.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/09/14, Lesson 1

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Puzzle “Adam HaRishon”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe system of Adam HaRishon (First Man) consisted of one desire which later was broken and divided into 600,000 pieces, like a puzzle. All of these parts are now separated by various obstacles in that they do not feel their connection and do not want to be connected. They hate and repel one another. We can see this from people’s behavior in this world.

We have to correct this disconnection and become connected. First we study our breakage, and after that we study the opposite, connection. We begin to get to know the Creator and His actions from comparing these two actions.  This is called “knowing the Creator through His actions.” As a result of our study, we elevate ourselves to the level of the Creator. We understand the thought of the creation, its purpose, and everything from the beginning to the end. We elevate ourselves higher than the creation.

The entire creation, everything that has happened to it and will happen, exists within this square, this puzzle. If we know how to match the parts of this puzzle, how to connect them together, we come to know everything about the creation and the Creator who created it. All we have to do is to put this puzzle together.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3

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All Of Us Are Equal, Like Children To Their Mother

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we come to a convention, we find ourselves in the company of people who are strangers whom we have never seen before. We don’t feel and don’t understand each other, but this is not important. If I know that I must connect with others in order to connect to the Creator, then I can enter any group.

It doesn’t concern me who is sitting there, from what country they come, or even what language they speak. The main thing for me is to participate emotionally and internally in this circle.

It is not important to me if we are speaking the same language and we know each other well, if we are close friends or seeing each other for the first time. This doesn’t change anything. The main thing is to rise above our ego and to want to be integrated into their circle in order to attain unity and through it, to let the Creator hear what we want.

So the rules of conduct in a group or at the time of a workshop are as follows:

  1. Nobody thinks about himself. There is no me!
  2. Everyone must feel that the rest of the friends are greater than himself (I < 9). In everything, the friends are higher than I am and I disappear in them as the smallest.
  3. Connection above all of our particular, personal characteristics is the Kli (vessel) in which the Creator is discovered. For the Creator (Bore) is “Come and See” (Bo Re); this means that we reach this state and find the Creator there. So our Kli is equal to the Creator. To the degree of the intensity of the Kli, its power (Bo), I can discover the Creator (Re). There is no measurement of the Creator. We don’t know His true measurements. But we discover Him according to how much we have prepared our Kli (Bo): to this degree we see Him (Re).
  4. At the time of the workshop nobody disagrees with the opinion of another. There are no questions: Each one only adds (10 = 1 + 1 + 1 …). What is important is the pluses and not the ones. The one whose turn is next only adds to the previous one, and nobody argues.

Even if I haven’t succeeded in rising above my critical attitude and it seems to me that someone else said something wrong, I must immediately correct myself. If I hear that a friend said something wrong, this means that I am not okay.

So everyone only adds and adds to what was said by the others. Someone can give some kind of conjecture, I continue, and then comes the next one in turn. So we constantly add. There are no great or small in our connection, all are equal.

It doesn’t matter what kind of seniority one has in a group, young or old, or more or less understanding. Among all of our physical characteristics in this world there is nothing that can violate our equality. In the spiritual world, all of us are equal, like children to their mother.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 2

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Connection For The Sake Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanOne must not think that our connection only makes it possible to pass the time pleasantly, or even think that this is an unnecessary burden.

We know that the first one was created by a vessel filled with one Light. However, in such a form, the creature (1) doesn’t feel what fills it (2) it feels itself and its life, but not the source of life, meaning it exists only on the level of the still.


So that the creature will reach a state where it perceives the higher power that created it and become like it, eternal and whole, it needs to receive the same characteristic, the same nature as the higher power.

How is it possible to do this? The higher power is absolute bestowal, and the lower power, the creature, is the power of reception. It follows that it is necessary to raise the creature that is only made up of a desire to receive, “created as something from nothing” and who doesn’t think about anything besides being filled, to the level of the higher power, the nature of the Creator.

So the creature was shattered into a multitude of fragments, let’s say seven billion people, as much as there are in all of humanity. And they are all distant and separated from each other due to the egoistic power found in them. This ego is opposite to the power of Light, meaning that it is equal to the minus of the power. Rejection between us is the opposite of the Creator. So if all of us connect together, the Creator is discovered in our characteristics that have transformed to become like Him.

So the Creator (Bore) is called, “come and see” (Bo Re), meaning, come to such a state within which you will see Him in your corrected feelings and characteristics.

So we were born after the shattering of the soul, which is explained as the transgression of the first man with the Tree of Knowledge. And all of our correction is through the transformation of hatred to love. Hatred is our power of separation (Delta). If we turn it into the opposite emotion, we discover that we are on the level of the Creator.

This is an eternal and perfect level that we must attain, and we reach this only through actual connection.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/9/14, Lesson 1

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Where Does The Sixth Sense Exist?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where does the sixth sense exist? Is it also within me?

Answer: The sixth sense does not exist within us, but in the center of the group. A group is called an assembly of people who are ready to renounce their egoism for the sake of uniting with one another in the center of the group and there reveal the common sensation and common mind.

This common sensation and mind revealed in the center of the group is called a spiritual vessel where the Creator is manifested. This is our spiritual level, the upper non-corporeal life.

Even when the body dies, we will not feel as dead because we have found life within the common upper system.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/09/14, Lesson 1

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Following The Teacher

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should we do to get what you want to give us in this convention?

Answer: Even in regular science, which we learn in school or in a university, a student always needs to stick to the teacher. Although there are others, you have to choose one whose advice you will follow. Then you will succeed.

This is how we learn in our world. When we speak about someone, we mention that he learned with some well-known scientist, some academician. For this says that he continues his way.

If we don’t learn with anyone, we remain beasts. But at least instinctively beasts can protect themselves, whereas a human infant cannot survive alone. We have to teach him everything. But even this is nothing compared to the spiritual path, where we have nobody from whom to take an example, for we don’t see them. We don’t know how to take steps and what is right and what is not.

They confuse us all the time and we are forced to clarify all of the feelings that pass though our hearts and the thoughts that pop up in our minds. There is no internal system in us that could advise us exactly what must be done, what is good and what is bad.

So we advance only when we become a fetus in the next level, like a drop of semen that enters the uterus and begins to develop there. And all that happens to it is derived from the upper, from the mother, who develops this drop of semen.

That is also how it is on the spiritual path: The student has to enter into the higher level, meaning into the teacher, and to disappear there by getting everything from him. He will grow in this way only, this is a compulsory condition.

Section eleven of The Study of the Ten Sefirot talks about the growth of each soul. There is no other possibility for growth besides nullifying yourself in regard to the upper one, meaning that you accept his conditions with your eyes shut and follow him. Many articles have been written about this. So a person must nullify himself towards the group and along with this nullify himself towards the teacher: regarding his way, regarding his advice. There is no other possibility.

That is how it happens with every creature born on the still, vegetative, and animate levels in our world, and according to the same principle the birth of the spiritual levels happens. We learn from the example of the animate level and behave accordingly on the level of the human soul.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/9/14, Lesson 1

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