Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Private And Common Salvation

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can we free ourselves of the impulse to pray for our own selves, asking for things egoistically, being unhappy with our past selves, and blaming ourselves for things in the past? After all, when we do this, we blame the Creator.

All the things that have happened to us in the past had to happen, the Creator made it happen. And this is why when we are unhappy with our past, we blame Him for putting us in those situations.

When we only concentrate on the group, this concentration helps us free ourselves of our incorrect attitude towards the past, the present, praying for ourselves, in our name, for our sake. This is the only way we can bring ourselves to have the right intention. And in this way, when we are inside this net, we stay close to the system and do not pull it in the opposite direction. When we concentrate on the prayer of many and constantly remain in this state, it saves us personally and helps the entire system move forward due to us.

How can we always have this aspiration, be in it as soon as we open our eyes in the morning? Just this! Otherwise, any thoughts of ours, any movements in our desires and mind will be negative and will distance us from the goal.

If we advance this way, we will certainly have descents and negative impulses, but only so we could fill them with a greater movement forward. In other words, if I will constantly advance by praying for others, by advancing them, then all the negative impulses will only be directed towards my further advancement and understanding of the direction in which I need to go and how I am to move.

This will determine the style and form of my movement. Then the Creator will be helping me: a little to the left, a little to the right, think about another, wish this and that, etc. If I am advancing correctly, I will definitely begin to feel His instructions.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5

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The Book Of Zohar – This Is Our Tree Of Life

Dr. Michael Laitman“The Zohar was to be concealed in the future… until the last generation would come in the end of days, when it then would be revealed.”—Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz, the Holy Shlah.

Many Kabbalists spoke about the nullification of the ban on studying the wisdom of Kabbalah: The great Kabbalist of the Middle Ages, Avraham Azulai, as well as the Ari and all the Kabbalists linked with him: the Ramak, the Ramchal, Rabbi Hayim Vital. The Ari was the Kabbalist who made a break with the entire process of the exile and ended it. And from him onward, the Era of the Messiah began.

But this was to be a complete period that would develop gradually according to the levels of 0-1-2-3, and in our day we are already entering into the last level 4, which belongs to the Era of the Messiah. Therefore the whole world is in fall, while Kabbalah is beginning to be revealed more and more.

Until the time of the Ari, The Book of Zohar was concealed. It was revealed a bit by Rabbi Moshe de Leon, but only through the Ari have we merited to see what is written in it. And therefore we count the Era of the Messiah from the days of the Ari onward.

“Messiah” means that through our work to draw (Limshoh) the Light that Reforms we can make an “Itaruta de Letata” (arousal from below), expressing our desire that will raise us on all the levels and will attract the Light to us that will correct the relationships between us. Then we will feel that we are no longer in this world; instead we have truly entered into a higher world. All this is clarified through the connection between us. If this connection is integrated, transforming correctly, then accordingly we begin to feel ourselves in the upper world and rise higher and higher through the 125 levels.

“And because in the future Israel will taste from the Tree of Life, which is this Book of Zohar, they will leave the exile with mercy.” The Book of Zohar, “Naso,” section 90.

If we are seriously and diligently involved with The Book of Zohar, then certainly we will leave the exile with mercy. And if not, then it will happen as it is written: “I will place over you a king like Haman and against your will he will return you to reform.” In other words, we have a possibility of going out of exile in a good way, by the way of Torah, through the Light that Reforms, which is uniquely designed for correction of the evil inclination. If we know how to be involved with The Book of Zohar correctly, then we will summon the Light that Reforms onto ourselves and we will leave the exile, meaning the causeless hatred and the temporary feeling of a miserable existence in this world. Everything will be changed according to the connection between us.

We can make the same change through the way of suffering, which is truly a very difficult and long way. But through the Light that we summon, we advance on a very short, easy and pleasant way.
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From the World Zohar Week “World Zohar Convention,” Day One 2/04/14, Lesson 1

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A Ladder To A Summit Filled Abundantly

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, Section 58: And I have named that commentary The Sulam (Ladder) to show that the purpose of my commentary is as the role of any ladder: if you have an attic filled abundantly, then all you need is a ladder to reach it. And then, all the bounty in the world will be in your hands.

We begin our work with the construction of a group of ten people who want to become one in it. If we transform these ten people into one, then we begin to discover a higher power within them.

After we finish this work, we begin to organize a more external circle. We must include all of these people with us to be able to connect again into a complete oneness.

With the connection of the first level, we discover the Ohr (Light) haNefesh. And by attaining connection in a more external circle we discover Ohr haRuach. But this Ohr HaRuach is discovered in the more internal circle, while the Ohr haNefesh passes to the outer circle.

If we are ready to connect an even more external circle with us, then in the more external circle, we disclose Nefesh, and in a more internal circle we disclose Ruach, and in the innermost circle we disclose Neshama. (Suppose that there were 10 people in the first circle, in the second there are 100 people and in the third 1000 people). And so on, to Haya and Yechida. It follows that our advancement depends upon expanding the external circles.

Baal HaSulam called his commentary “The Ladder” because the more that we move and advance forward and include more and more new friends with us, thanks to this, we rise up the ladder and strengthen the connection between us more and more.

In this way we transform into a greater Kli in which all of the Light of NRNHY are revealed in our Kelim: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. And then there is one Light and one Kli connected together into a single whole and we reach adherence with the goal of creation.

Each one of these five levels, five circles, is divided into another five and another five, meaning that the Ohr NRNHY de NRNHY de NRNHY emerges, and in total 125 levels emerge. Therefore Baal HaSulam, making his commentary on the entire Zohar, on its entire height up to the completion of correction, explains how to rise to every spiritual level through connection of all the Kelim that will be discovered. Therefore he called his commentary, “The Ladder”.
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From the World Zohar Week “World Zohar Convention,” Day One 2/04/14, Lesson 1

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Anyone Can Become A “Man Of Light”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “Beha’alotcha” Item 88: And the wise shall shine as the brightness of the “firmament” are the authors of the Kabbalah. They are the ones who exert in this brightness, called The Book of Zohar.

This is speaking of those who are striving to enter into The Book of Zohar, and this book is of equal value for all generations because it was written from the height of the completion of correction in comparison to all the rest of the books of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam also attained the completion of correction, and therefore he was able to write a complete commentary for The Book of Zohar.

Therefore, The Book of Zohar belongs to all generations and every person who is involved and learns with it becomes an “man of Light,” meaning that he begins to shine like the brilliance of the firmament. In other words, his characteristics are changed so that the Upper Light begins to be radiated through him.
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From the World Zohar Convention 2/5/14, Lesson 1

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At The Apex Of The Changes

Dr. Michael LaitmanBefore our world was created, the spiritual Kli was created, and now in our world, it is up to us to restore it, to connect it anew from the shattered parts. These parts are us, and the shattering is in the mutual rejection between us. Parts of the Kelim, meaning us, receive an awakening from above, and, in this form, we ask ourselves questions about the meaning of life.

The meaning of life is found above our lives because we don’t ask about this in the framework of this life. We think only how to get along better in life, and, when we begin to ask, “What is the reason for living,” this is already a question beyond the limits of our world. This is already a question directed at the source of our existence, at the Creator.

In general, all of humanity is in a movement toward unity, but in a most unpleasant way and not with the greatest speed. All of us have advanced in such a form and reached this moment where our development has brought us to the finish line where all of us must begin to connect.

There is a group, all whom received the awakening from above, and it is up to us to realize the method of correction in ourselves, to connect with the Creator minimally. This is because connection with the Creator is possible only to the degree that we accept shortcomings from the entire world.

We receive the usual shortcomings from the entire world; in other words, all six shortcomings that Baal HaSulam enumerated, desires that are relevant to a person, to his body, which are food, sex, and family, and in addition to this, there are desires that are related to the connection of the person with society directed toward money, respect and information.

All six desires are active in every person in our world, but they are discovered in each one differently, and in each one of them, there are a multitude of different components, smaller desires.

All of human development first was directed toward developing desires related to food, sex, and family in humans, leading them to the growth of desires for money, honor, and knowledge so that they would pass through them and discover lack of fulfillment in them. Yet, in the meantime, it is difficult to say that all of humanity is found in such a condition.

Food, sex, and family are corporeal desires that don’t require any correction, in principle. However, in the higher desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, a greater ego is discovered within humanity. Also, this ego is generally only preliminary, required so that a lack of true fulfillment would be discovered in it as well. This is the crisis. The lack of true fulfillment is the feeling of the crisis.

Therefore, we now are in a stage where humanity is passing through different crisis phenomena, and these crisis phenomena change all the time. Some of them have more of an influence on the economy, others on ethics, and part of them on politics and on the family. In general, there will be many and varied crises, and, accordingly, we must understand how we need to work with people.

In principle, the method is the same method, but the approach to people must be according to their needs. In other words, for every civilization, for every culture that exists in the world today, there must be a unique approach. Therefore, desires are developed in different nations, in different people and areas, according to the place in which we must work.

Look, for example, at how Latin America leaped with a desire to realize spirituality and how much Europe lags behind it. There is no singular approach. We don’t know why it happens this way.

Accordingly, it is up to us to be sensitive to the pulse all the time, to see where to invest more efforts, where there is a greater need, an opportunity for more exposure. The world is in a global connection. Yet, nevertheless, many changes are taking place in all the different parts of the world.

Therefore, it is up to us to concentrate on a place where there is a need for correction, for spirituality, for inner change, or, as Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, where the question: “What is the reason for my life?” “How can I be fulfilled?” exists; when a question like this appears, people already are prepared for us to turn to them.

As we already have said, this question can expand into different areas, beginning with everyday problems in life to higher, more psychological, more internal problems. Therefore, this places a difficult problem before us.

The idea is that we cannot connect to the Creator if we don’t function as a conduit for His connection, for His bestowal, for His control of the entire world in order to pull all of humanity after us. You see, the entire system is undergoing a shattering only to be able to begin to feel the Creator through this shattering so that we will rise to His level. That is how the entire problem of His relationship with the creatures will be discovered and resolved. The “good and benevolent” is expressed in the creatures rising to His level and becoming like Him. This means everyone together, without exception.

In this way, it is up to us to have our hand on the pulse; and, besides this, it is up to us to be very sensitive to all changes, no matter how small. We now also are found in the higher world, in the world of Infinity (Olam Ein Sof), surrounded and penetrated with the Ohr Ein Sof, with the light of the Creator. There is no difference between our place now and in the future. Nothing changes except our feeling, our senses. The sensitivity is changed. It is up to us to develop and discover it in order to feel the Light. We are found within it, and nothing exists outside of it. So, all of the changes take place within us, and there is no need to travel anywhere. It is necessary only to work all the time on increasing sensitivity to the upper Light within us. This is our goal.

The problem is that, without movement, matter doesn’t exist. Matter exists only in constant motion, in change. Theoretically, if the movement were to stop, everything would disappear immediately. We see this with the atoms, with the elementary particles from which the atoms are composed. If we want to feel the upper world, we must increase our sensitivity to the changes that are taking place in us. Sometimes, it seems to a person that nothing is changing, that everything has frozen, has stopped, that there is no movement. The feeling that life has frozen is intended to show us that we must increase our sensitivity to all movement, and all the movements take place within desire.

At the moment that we begin to be integrated within a group that requires us to concentrate on the Creator through the connection between us, we immediately receive a countless number of changes at every moment. You will begin to feel that every second is an infinite unit of time, from beginning to end. During that second, we pass through a multitude of changes. This sensitivity to change is what we must discover.

I hope that the mutual integration between us through which all of us together are passing—among all of the various continents, civilizations and cultures—will embed in us the fundamentals of greater sensitivity to changes, and, inside of us at every moment, we will begin to feel tremendous changes in desire, direction, emotion, and perception. All the time, more and more, we will examine and direct them at every moment toward the Creator through the group, and, in this way, we very quickly will move the rest of the required way for the first discovery of the Creator.

Discovery of the Creator takes place specifically within these incessant changes because permanence or fixation doesn’t exist. The moment that you stop, everything disappears!

Therefore, the incessant changes guarantee that we are feeling the upper world, feeling the Creator. In our world, our feeling can be something permanent, but, in spirituality, this cannot be. Therefore, come, and let’s remember well that this condition can be fulfilled only if I am linked through the group, locked all the time on the Creator.

So, how do we raise sensitivity to the spirituality in which we are found? If I go out of myself and try to listen to what the friend says, suddenly I find myself in an empty void within the friend. So, within this empty void, how can I feel all kinds of changes and movements so that I will enter into his inner desires directed toward the Creator so that we will yearn for Him together?

We discover and attain the Creator to the degree that we are sensitive to Him; in other words, when the surrounding expanse is revealed to us and we try to feel its characteristics, the changes in it, its vibrations in regard to us, or more correctly, our vibrations in regard to it, our changes in regard to the characteristic of bestowal and love.

Our entire world was given to us in order to direct ourselves toward a particular wave, toward the characteristic of bestowal and love, like in a radio receiver. In the beginning, a rough, approximate tuning is made between the friends. As we continue, we connect to greater and greater external circles of our world, and, as a result of this, we direct ourselves more and more precisely, emotionally discover more of the characteristic of bestowal and love, and in such a form, we begin to feel the Creator more and more clearly.

For our entire world, all of the creatures, the fragmentation and the corrections are required only in order to direct ourselves toward feeling the characteristic of bestowal and love, the Creator, and as long as all of humanity has not entered into this system of mutual feeling—of mutual vibrations, of the tuning of the self—we cannot discover the Creator at all, not any person in the world.

The Kabbalists carried out great work in the past, but they reached a very limited range of attainment because humanity was not at all ready to begin to feel this yet.

However, as of today, we already have been able to determine that humanity is ready to integrate into clarifications of feelings of mutual bestowal and love and from them, to become aware of the Creator. In other words, today, the general rule, “From the love of man to the love of the Creator,” is being actively realized specifically by tuning into a high sensitivity to bestowal, to mutual connection, mutual integration according to the principle, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Our mutual tuning leads us toward the Creator, and, through gradual expansion of our circle of sensitivity, to all of humanity, in this way, we discover the Creator within this new sense of bestowal and love.

That is how the general rule of “From the love of man to the love of the Creator” is realized, but it is specifically through feelings, through increased sensitivity.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/2/14, Workshop 4

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Sandpaper On Egoism – Balm On The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach of us once was a fetus in his or her mother’s womb. Our mothers nurtured us and as a result we developed. Imagine a state when you are there, inside. How does one feel while being in the fetal state?

The fetal state is analogous to our current stage of development. The breakthrough to spirituality is completely parallel to the stages a fetus goes through while it grows. The opposing forces (bestowal and receiving) descended from spirituality and ensure our evolution.

In The Study of the Ten Sefirot there are about a thousand pages that explain how spirituality can be attained. The book describes the descent of both forces into this world. Stages of descent are similar to the way we come to and then develop in this world.

So, what are the ways of advancement?

A group serves the “womb” for us; we have to take the best possible care of it. Our advancement should be conscientious and this is the difference in spiritual progress, spiritual growth from any other kind of advancement.

In this world, a fetus never worries about the place that ensures its birth and further growth. A fetus advances unconsciously. The same applies to humanity, its advancement is mindless; we are driven forward by forces, incentives, properties, desires, “chances.” etc.

We are the ones who have to create a suitable environment for our growth, the surroundings that will ensure our advancement. Our progress completely depends on the development of our environment. If we don’t elevate the group, if we don’t unite, connect, or enhance the collection and unity of friends, we won’t advance.

In his writings, Baal HaSulam mentioned that regrettably there were cases in the history of humanity when the “fetus” appeared stillborn. It happened solely because a group stopped caring for their unity.

At each step, we have to enhance our connection. When we manage to boost the unity among us, we rise and go through a new state, a new day, until we complete the entire nine months of our development. Then, we are born. The process of birth in this world happens in complete agreement with spiritual laws. This explains why those who are aware of spiritual laws also realize what’s going on in this material realm.

Thus, the development of the group, we should always choose over our personal progress, since only through the group can we “pull” ourselves up. This is the way we ascend: We trigger the influence of the Upper Light on us, demanding from It and appealing to It, begging and praying that It raises, unites, and connects us. Our connection activates the surrounding force, the mother’s womb, in which we are conceived. We call it Malchut or Shechina. This is where we turn into a man.

There are two opposing forces that reciprocally interact, the force of receiving and the power of bestowal. They have to come in balance with each other. Each time, when the equilibrium between these two forces is reached, it gives rise to an ascent. Then, we strive to a new state of balance, thus rising again. This is how we progress and are born. In fact, we ourselves grow.

The problem is that we have to relate to both developing forces positively, with joy. They are not always very pleasant; both of them work as “sandpaper” on our egoism and trigger numerous troubles and problems. We should always keep in mind that everything is organized by the Creator and only by Him. The Creator has enumerable methods to “bother” us; every moment He sends something to each of us separately and to all of us together.

We should accept His “treatment” and accept the states we go through in our material lives as blessing and a lot of luck. We have to realize that everything that happens to us is just the way He treats us and leads us. We should connect everything that happens to us with the notions “There is none else besides Him” and “He is the absolute good that does good.” No doubt that we perceive our lives contrary to His unconditional benevolence since we regard His influence through our egoism. As soon as we unite, His guidance will transform in the “absolute good”—truly!

Sometimes we happen to feel a spark of complete benevolence during our group gatherings or while we are engaged in collective actions that aim at enhancing of our unity. On other occasions, this state emerges on a personal, independent basis. The latter is not as desirable as when the group “digests” the Creator’s impact jointly.

The effects we receive mostly are not enjoyable. They become satisfying only when we correctly connect them with ourselves, thus reaching the middle line between the right and left lines (between good and bad states), when we pursue spiritual advancement by means of connecting with others.

All we have to do is just properly understand and accept the upper influence and correctly assess it. Our job is to constantly analyze and refer to the same notion over and over again; i.e., anything that happens to us, inside us, in our hearts and thoughts, desires and inspirations, everything that ever happens to us is done solely by the Upper Light.

Why does it work this way? – Because our job is to connect with our friends and pray that the Upper Light elevates us to the next state, to the property of bestowal.

We should tune ourselves in a way that we won’t miss an opportunity to ascend. Very rarely do we realize that everything that goes on with and in us comes from the Creator and that He is the one who sends all situations to us only because He wants to make us plea to Him in order to transform our “troubles” into a positive advancement. Each moment of our time, all our existence, is a permanent appeal to us from Above, a call to rise to Him. Our job is to tune ourselves up so that we won’t miss this chance.

The main prerequisite to it is to “lift our hearts to the Creator’s path.” Constantly, each one of us separately and all of us together should make our relationships with Him much more sensitive. If we manage to do so, we’ll start understanding what He is telling us. He talks to us exclusively through sensations that emerge in us; whereas we respond to Him through our reactions to sensations that we receive from Him. It happens over and over again: we receive a new sensation from Him and react to it, etc.

This is how we advance, like children who learn by reacting to stimuli. It’s not important if a child’s reaction is good or bad, right or wrong, this is the way children grow. We advance the same way.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/02/14, Workshop 2

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Nine Stages On The Way To Unity, Point 9

Dr. Michael LaitmanPreparation for the Integral Convention: Integral Educators.

We discover that we are destined not to maintain our link to the Creator and that we don’t need the wider public to keep the “raspberry ball,” rather we must have the raspberry ball in order to serve the wider public. And specifically through this discovery we approach the end of correction.

This makes it possible for us to see the integrality, the links, and the Arvut (mutual guarantee) in nature. We begin to determine our relationship to the wider public: how much we need it, for without it we cannot give contentment to the Creator, and how much the Creator wants humanity and not us.

That is how we attain our destiny and disappear. A “nation of priests” is when you don’t exist. You serve the wider public, serve all of humanity, and serve the Creator. And in this you see your anonymous role. You have no part or inheritance in anything, in sum you are the connecting link, a conduit, a component for transmission. And this is good because with this we can truly be closer to the nature of the Creator.

We must present and give an example to the world, and through this example convey to it the spiritual condition that we have attained. Even though in the meantime this is the opposite side of the spiritual state, if we succeed in turning the face of the world towards us, we can turn our face towards the Creator. By turning toward the world with love, we can turn with love towards Him. About this it is said: “From love of the creatures to love of the Creator.”

And in order to turn the face of the world towards us, it’s necessary to awaken the people to the right understanding of solidarity with them. For this it’s necessary to convey the inner tension in words. The words must be very clear and deep. Only in this way can we be integrated into the outer circle, truly connecting with them. And then we receive the required addition that will help us to rise and enter into a higher level.

The correct integral educator for spiritual development must awaken this development in a student. If we succeed in reaching the hearts of the people, then specifically those experiences and impressions that we awaken in the wider public will make it possible for us to grow the raspberry ball, enhancing and strengthening the point of contact with the Creator and feeling Him.

It is said: “I learned from all of my students.” We will yet understand why through a connection with students a person can learn more than from teachers.
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The Most Important Book For Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe World Zohar Convention 2014 is dedicated to the most important and unequaled book that was given to humanity from Above through a unique group of Kabbalists. All of reality is a result of the breaking of desires. And in our world this breaking was manifested by way of the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

The ten Kabbalists who created The Book of Zohar were the remaining survivors of the destruction. On the one hand, they still belonged to the great times and high spiritual levels of the people of Israel at the time of the Temple, meaning at the spiritual state. But on the other hand, they had already emerged from the breaking and reached a unique revelation among them thanks to absolutely unique work.

Never in history had there been an event like this, that a group of ten people gathered and attained such a strong connection, rising to the height of 125 levels of correction of the breaking that existed between them. And therefore by way of their external connection, meaning by way of the book, they managed to convey the levels through which they had passed: from hatred to love, and after that from even greater hatred to even greater love, and so on further and further.

It is said, “Whoever is greater than his friend has greater egoism.” And therefore the higher we rise, the more distant and opposite we feel in relation to each other, the more hateful. That is how our nature, the evil inclination, is revealed to us.

A regular person doesn’t have an evil inclination, he simply has desires. Whereas the evil inclination is revealed in people who want to connect with each other and at that time, according to their aspiration, pressure, and efforts to connect, they discover how incapable of this they are.  They discover that the ego is awakened in them all the time and pushes them away from each other.

In The Book of Zohar it is written that the very same students of Rabbi Shimon, who each had attained an extraordinary height, the upper part (GAR) of the world of Atzilut, before the lesson, at the first attempt to connect, felt unbearable hatred towards each other. They expressed all of this inner struggle and antagonisms in The Book of Zohar. They felt how the fire of hatred burned in them, something which specifically indicates a very high level of the recognition of the evil inclination and its corresponding correction into the good inclination.
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From the World Zohar Convention 2/5/14, Lesson 1 

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It Is Forbidden To Walk In Place

Dr. Michael LaitmanOne should not dwell in the previous stage, but should immediately enter into the next level and accustom oneself to such a change of states. If we stop in a particular state, this is not good. All changes are for the good; the main thing is that there should be changes.

It is written, (Isaiah 2:3) “For out of Zion shall go forth the law,” meaning departing from the previous state, even the best. This is even if it’s a fall from a higher state, from joy to sorrow. This is not important, only that there should be as many changes as possible because they determine the rate of advancement.

We always advance, stepping with the left foot or with the right foot; that is how movement is made. Therefore the main thing is not to stand on one leg in the same spot, rather to move all the time: from the left line to the right, or from the right to the left. The main thing is to go out of the previous state and enter into a new level of connection.

The ascents and descents happen all the time. They say that the Seer of Lublin said to his student who was complaining about the constant ascents and descents that he passed through 400 ascents and descents in the morning. It’s not necessary to think that he counted them, he simply knew the number of levels that he had risen: that is, the level where he had been before and the level to which he had risen. And that is how he knew that they were 400. Additionally, 400 is a number that symbolizes completion.

The more internal changes happen within a person, the better. And it’s not necessary to analyze them as to whether they are good or bad. There are no bad changes! Baal HaSulam writes: “I am happy about the wickedness that is revealed”; you see, if they are revealed this says that it’s possible to correct them. Even though it’s bad for me, I am happy that I can correct this evil. Therefore it’s good that you are going through many ascents and descents.

And in addition, this helps the friends. Everyone goes through many inner changes, and through integration we convey these ascents and descents to one another. So it follows that everyone wins and advances quickly.
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From a Preparatory Lesson for the Arava Convention 1/30/14

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Integral Mediators

Dr. Michael LaitmanIntegral Education Convention, Workshop 2: The group provides us the means that allow us to constantly yearn for the right feeling that my whole life, my thoughts and feelings, all stem from the Creator and that it is arranged that way so that through the connection, we will turn to Him.

Generally speaking the world is divided into two parts:

  • People who have received an awakening from Above, from the Creator, in order to advance to Him. The Creator brings these people to a group, “places a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him, ‘Take it.’” Then it’s up to a person whether to choose it or not, which means to be incorporated in the group, to become part of the general current against his ego or not. This is our choice.
  • The rest of humanity lives individually, each person on his own for the time being, in a random, Brownian motion. The ego develops in humanity, of course, but gradually, and not in a group flow.

People who flow together with the group are required to strengthen and to build it consciously. The main thing is to understand that the moment they become part of one of our groups or of the general group, they have nothing private or individual anymore. Everything that happens to them is only a result of being in a common movement with us. Now everything that they receive is through the center of the group and it doesn’t matter if it’s consciously or not. Then it spreads to everyone and each one receives according to the efforts that he has to make in the common flow towards connection, towards the center.

It is the same when it comes to our movement towards the Creator. Everything that we want to focus on Him, to tell Him, to ask from Him, to summon His bestowal upon us, the influence of the Surrounding Light, and so on, can also come only through the center of the group. This means that the center of the group is very important for us, like a point from which we can ascend in our appeal to the Creator and through it, like though an umbilical cord, we receive everything and give everything.

Let’s imagine our spiritual umbilical cord through which we receive and give everything. Only through this cord are we connected to the source of life. Imagine that you are an embryo in a womb, and that through this cord, through the center of the group, we receive our life, all the spiritual force, everything there is.

When we find the connection to the umbilical cord, we begin to realize the way that it’s all built, and how everything actually descends to us from the upper Providence. Our world is merely the world of outcomes, and therefore nothing is ever born in it. We begin to realize how we can affect the upper Providence and to evoke the best ascent.

Thus we reach a conscious development because we find the connection with our source, and start to connect between us, to draw everything from Him and to respond to it correctly. Although “there is none else but Him,” the Creator is eventually a simple passive source. Everything that happens is only through our bestowal, according to our request.

So how can we bestow upon the source through this umbilical cord? Through the center of the group, of course, otherwise there would be no contact with it. We discover it in order to ascend above all our deficiencies, and connect in order to receive the answer from Above, feeling the cooperation between us and the Creator through the pipe, through the line. We study about the line in Kabbalah and it goes like a pipe from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) all the way to our world.

We serve as an upper level for the public and we have to use this pipe so that people will be nourished by us and will gradually be drawn upwards. It seems that we feel the point of contact with the Light, with the Creator, with the upper level, but for some reason we don’t really rush to find it and to use it in order to start passing the positive energy from the top down towards us and the negative energy from the bottom up.

The crisis that develops around us is in order to help us with it. Eventually, if we don’t wake up in time, it will also reach us not only spiritually, but also in the ordinary corporeal sense. After all, the crisis is meant only to awaken us to a quick connection with the immense force, with the abundance, with the upper Light that includes everything, in order to convey it through us to the world on the outside.

If we don’t do it in time, the world will not treat us very nicely. It refers specifically to us and to the wisdom of Kabbalah since we are the ones who have to perform the correction. If we did everything in time, we wouldn’t see a crisis at all and we wouldn’t feel anything negative. We would be taking constant preventive steps.

But we are lagging behind. At the moment we lag behind a little. I hope that it’s enough, and that later we will begin to understand the responsibility that we have towards the world and will understand that the crisis is a lack of the upper force that has to be conveyed to the world through us.

So how can we organize ourselves as quickly as possible in order to come in contact with the Creator, with the external world, and to be the conductors of the upper Light, of the abundance? After all, this is the solution to every aspect of the crisis. We have to feel that we are the conductors that connect between the upper world and the lower world; this is what we have to do.

It says: “The upper shall learn from the lower.” We have to better understand how we should turn to the Creator, based on our integral dissemination and our integral education in turning to the public. It’s just as we finally begin to appreciate the way our parents treated us when we become parents. When we begin to tie the deficiencies that are evoked in the public with the global integral solution, with the spiritual ascent that the Creator expects us to make, it’s as if we include the two ends:

  • On the one hand, the masses with their apparently simple daily needs.
  • On the other hand, the upper value that the Creator places before us, connection and the attainment of the one system that includes everything in which He is revealed as the reviving force.

This is how we develop on the whole, thanks to the fact that we are between the hammer and the anvil. On the one hand there is the public, the masses, and on the other hand the Creator. We have to balance the Creator’s actions which spur us on to connect that descend from the top and are fulfilled in the masses in the form of troubles and simple human needs, and we raise the problems and the simple troubles through us to a higher level of connection with the Creator, above time and space, above everything that is already in us, to the spiritual space.

This is our uniqueness, as we begin to connect the two worlds in us and to tie them to us. This is the special quality of the group that can perform this work, to connect, to include and to tie the two opposite worlds inside it. Being an integral part, we include all of humanity and we lower the Creator into it from Above. Thus we attain the feeling that is between the two opposite systems of creation. This is our uniqueness and our ultimate fulfillment.

The created being’s ultimate goal is actually fulfilled inside the group, which means in the connection of humanity, starting from the center, from us, and spreading to wider circles. We are already pulling those who are behind us, inviting them to join us, without pulling them to our level but simply acting according to the level of their desire and understanding the crisis as an aspiration for connection.

We feel that the current crisis is spiritual, while they feel it on the corporeal level. Yet, on the whole, the solution is one and it is to reach an equivalence of form with the Creator and to know how to be in contact with Him so that He and we will connect according to the condition of the equivalence of form. This is the method.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/02/14, Workshop 2

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World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Two – 02.03.14
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