Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

How Firm Is Our World?

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll the Kabbalistic primary sources describe the system of higher management, meaning the forces that act upon us, but we do not feel.

We do not see the forces, but only feel the result of their impact, just as we do not see electric current flowing through wires. Only when a light bulb is lit or we are shocked by touching a live wire do we realize that there is current. Similarly, we do not know what happens to us, meaning what forces affect us.

We move, grow, think of something, and experience some events, something is happening around us all the time. And where do all these events come from? Who governs us? In principle, we do not know. We think that everything happens by chance or that I think about something. But where did my thoughts come from, I don’t know why I think they are mine.

That is, a person in our world sees only a small fragment of the whole world, the whole system, and thus he is in a state of detachment from the real world.

The real world is much bigger. Where did we come from? Why were we born in such conditions, with these features, in this family? What is the origin of our universe?

We once thought that the universe existed infinitely. When I was at school, we were told that everything exists eternally.

Then, we suddenly discovered that the universe has existed only 14 billion years, starting with the Big Bang and spreading further, that is already a limited time. And what had happened before that? It is unknown. But we know that this date is the birth of our world.

Moreover, modern science shows that if we penetrate into matter, atoms, and then beyond atoms, beyond elementary particles, then everything disappears there: There is no matter, there are forces in the form of clouds. Electrons, protons, and neutrons are not elementary particles, but some cloud effects. It turns out that all that we ever considered unshakable: matter, energy, information, all of it is something that dissolves in some volume that we do not understand.

Today, science comes to this. And that is why it is difficult for us to communicate with it because we are not designed to communicate with such concepts. That is why, science is coming to a crisis, and against the background of the crisis, the science of Kabbalah is revealed.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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Filter All That Is Redundant

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalists determined the laws of the group from their own experience. The purpose of creating a group is to connect and to become like the Creator. The group is formed when people who want to attain this state assemble, and of course, the group should understand why it exists. It includes new members who do not understand or perceive this yet, but in a very short time, we explain why there is a group, and non-coercively we gradually lead them to this state.

The group should be unified, and there should be no distortions in it. It isn’t a factory with managers and workers who are subordinate to them. There is no such thing in a group that studies Kabbalah; everything is collective.

We create different committees that serve and help, sustain and organize the group, the study, the holidays, the meals, etc. All this should be accurately adapted to the basic unity of every individual and of the collective. Although we are different, we have to be totally equally, one is wise another is foolish, it makes no difference at all. Everyone is natural as they are and essential in that specific form.

Imagine a mechanism with some of its parts moving fast and others moving slowly, some are moving to the right or to the left and others are revolving around an axis. Everyone has his own role and the main thing is that everyone should do his best for the general unity. The other conditions in the group are created as a result.

The main condition is mutual help and this is what leads us to the connection between us, since a single person doesn’t have to correct anything. Each of us is an absolute whole and there is nothing corrupt except for one thing, the connection with others. This is why I don’t pay attention to a person’s character, to his external form, to his disgusting habits, to anything. All this doesn’t concern me, I use a “filter” and don’t see all this; someone is a redhead, another is boring and someone annoys me and draws me any way they want to, but I don’t care. Behind my “filter” I have to see one thing only: a person’s attitude towards connection and unity, since this is the only thing we have to correct in him. If he works on that, he is my friend and if he doesn’t, he is a stranger to me.

We shouldn’t try to change anything in us except for the connection with others, this is very important. We waste much time and power on this. We should stop dealing with what is unnecessary, since we only break and corrupt ourselves this way. You have to stay the way you are, you shouldn’t waste even one gram of energy on that, just invest in the connection.

When this is clear, the work becomes soft and mutual; it becomes a meal, a yearning for mutuality and for love. We shouldn’t pay attention to anything else. There is only one condition: the connection between us, and the group should constantly focus its attention on it.

We have a long way to go and at the beginning many distortions, misunderstandings, irritations, outbursts, etc. may occur. But there is only one important thing and it’s whether a person truly yearns for unity. If he tries to increase this urge in him, then I take upon myself all his other problems and help him.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/06/12, Lesson 2

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Should We Wait 150 Years?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose that in 100 -150 years the wisdom of Kabbalah will have spread as a spiritual science and many people will support it. What if we discovered that some people don’t agree with Kabbalah and are against it? Will those who study Kabbalah be able to fill the heavenly vessel that has to be filled? What if all the people don’t complete this vessel, will it be possible to think that the idea of Kabbalah has been fulfilled?

Answer: We are not speaking about any heavenly spiritual vessel or about 150 years of dissemination. We are speaking about the fact that today a person is breaking the laws of nature and he feels the blows as he is being hit from every direction. We are in a crisis.

Kabbalah explains how to come out of the crisis, but not in 150 years. What kind of 150 years can we speak of if we may not even exist for another year? Newspapers write about the threat of hurricanes, that anywhere in the world there could be a tsunami, and that next year there will be no crops. There is no time to waste. Kabbalah is not a theoretical science; it is very practical and we should use it if we want to survive.

When we discover something in physics, chemistry, or medicine and you are suddenly told that something is forbidden or harmful and if you don’t listen certain things may happen, do you wait 150 years? It is the same thing here.

Kabbalah is not meant to be believed and not even to be used. Kabbalah offers how you can advance consciously in a good and easy way.

A wise person sees the problem in advance and tries to bypass it. Here the wisdom of Kabbalah helps us. A fool will wait until he gets beaten: “I don’t believe this; I don’t want to,” like a child who is punished and then does what he has to do anyway since he has no choice. Kabbalah doesn’t say that you have to believe in it, to study it and to fill a certain vessel. You have to change yourself here and now, in this world according to the laws of nature in order to maintain homeostasis. If you are adapted to the conditions of homeostasis with nature, you will feel good, since the law of balance is what matters.

If the human body is out of balance, a person’s blood pressure goes up, the level of sugar in his blood and other parameters change and it is called a disease. Today our body and humanity are in a state of imbalance with nature and it hurts. You are told how to correct yourself and how to reach a state of balance in a very practical way today, now, not in 150 years.

If you don’t start correcting yourself, next year you will be facing the threat of droughts, poor crops, storms, etc., not to mention the economic crisis, the financial and family crises. You are being offered an easier solution to the problem, not to study under the threat of the stick, but to study by opening a book.

A person may say: “I don’t want to study physics, it’s not important for me, I will live without it.” Now imagine a person who doesn’t know the natural laws of physics, how can he create certain mechanisms or interact with something? We calculate everything this way and build different systems.

Here we have absolute freewill, do you want to act? Act. If you don’t want to, don’t act. That’s all. Kabbalah doesn’t force anyone. We disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah on the Internet freely for everyone and no one has to identify himself. Get to know the wisdom of Kabbalah; it is for your own good! It will help you balance yourself with the world, and understand why such problems come your way. You don’t have to be a follower of a certain school; it isn’t a religion.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1

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What Can Help The Economy?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can Kabbalah and Kabbalah books help the economy get out of the global crisis?

Answer: There is nothing that can help the economy except the restructuring of human society. Today, society cannot provide everyone with work and a good income that everyone dreams about. For this, there are not enough natural resources, energy, anything. Humanity must be restructured so that everyone has everything at the so-called level of reasonable consumption. The economy has to be changed according to this principle.

I have many students that are economists, and very serious ones, who are trying with great efforts to create the economy or reasonable consumption. It is not easy because we need to change the approach to life: to see everyone equal, to see everyone dependent; this is what nature requires from us today.

But how can we become like this? The first thing is to re-educate a person so he can see others in this way; otherwise he will be forced by immense suffering, a global nuclear war, etc.

What is happening in America now is only a small part of what we are shown. Yesterday on television, I saw mile-long lines of people standing to get water or a bowl of soup. And this is in New York!

This can happen all over the world and many times worse. At least in America, they can quickly clean the effects of the hurricane, although it will cost them $200 billion, if not more. They will find money, print it, and you will pay for it. But if it happens here, who will pay for us? This is a problem.

That is why Kabbalah advises how to prevent all this.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1

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The Role Of Kabbalists In Each Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What was the role of Kabbalists before the revelation of Kabbalah in our day? Or was it simply the transfer of information from one generation to the next?

Answer: The role of Kabbalists was to develop Kabbalah further and further in each generation down to our time. There was no other use in practice. There were different Kabbalists in each generation who had to continue developing it in their generation.

A Kabbalist is a person who is interested in the system of management of our world: why, what for, and how to work with it. He reveals this system, studies it, and describes it based on the level that he is at.

A Kabbalist of the next generation is on a different level than the Kabbalist of the past one. Just like all other people, he evolves with other needs according to which he develops Kabbalah further. That is, the development of humanity and Kabbalah are parallel, until people begin to need it, and then Kabbalah is revealed.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1

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What Does Kabbalah Predict?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Kabbalah predicts absolutely everything in the development of human history. What does it say about the current millennium?

Answer: Kabbalah predicts everything if I know in advance the general system, its motion, because everything occurs deterministically in it; that is, there are forces that interact according to a particular program, and I study this program.

The program exists; it is perfect, complete. And while I do not even know it completely because I have not reached this level to see it entirely, I can already foresee something, predict.

So it is in our world. If I have learned some laws of nature, for example, certain weather conditions, then I can calculate all the weather conditions and say with some degree of probability that during this week it might rain, or snow, or be sunny, or cloudy. Can I predict this? Yes. That is, on the basis of previous studies and the current state, I can predict the future state. This is already the knowledge of laws. Of course, this is not the knowledge of the absolute law, when there is a formula before me and I clearly see what and how, but I can forecast something approximately. It is the same thing with Kabbalah. We deal with the system.

Once I studied Bio-cybernetics; it is absolutely the same. This is the same system. I also work with the forces that affect our world. If I know these forces, know the nature of this world, then I can predict ahead of time, that is, calculate in advance how they come into contact with each other over time, and what the result would be. There is no surprise.

When we turn something on or off for a young child, it is a miracle to him, that is, we show him something he does not understand, but for us it is not a miracle because we know what we’re doing. So it is with Kabbalah.

Rising to the next level of understanding, knowledge, you see what happens, and it becomes work for you because in principle a Kabbalist is a person who is engaged not only in study but in the practical application of the management systems, the practical implementation of the program of development of the world.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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Everyone’s Duty

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can anyone climb the spiritual ladder to the top and what will happen to those who cannot rise?

Answer: Everyone must and will have to reach a balance, harmony with nature, the Creator, with others. Everyone!

What will happen to those who do not want? Nature will push them with a stick towards happiness and beat them until they want. It will beat them, so no guards are needed. Then a person will begin to ask himself quietly: “Why is this happening? Why is this falling on me? What am I doing wrong?” Because blows gradually teach him.

Therefore, in order to learn quickly, to understand this after one or two blows and not after a hundred or two hundred, Kabbalah exists. In principle, it does nothing else; it simply helps understand what the problem in life is and how to change it.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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Spiritual Sight And Hearing

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What are spiritual sight and hearing?

Answer: The first stage of attainment is called “I heard,” and the second stage is “I saw,” but it is not the ears and eyes, but the level, the depth, of spiritual attainment. When a person reaches the state, “do not do evil to others,” then he is in the state, “I heard,” and when in addition, he reaches the level, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” then he reaches the level of “I saw.”
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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Changing The Creator Or Changing Oneself?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You have mentioned several times that Kabbalah is a science. Do such concepts as “individual or personal aspect of God” and “the way through Kabbalah, through devotion” have a place in it?

Answer: The higher power in Kabbalah is called “Nature” or the “Creator.” You can call it “God.” But this higher force is not at all what believers mean. This is a clear physical, absolute, good influence on everything that exists, permanent and unchanging. That is why if believers, no matter what faith, ask God to change, in principle their prayers are aimed at this; the people who study Kabbalah strive to change themselves because in their understanding God is absolute.

If He is absolutely good, if He is absolutely loving, then I cannot ask Him to change because He is already absolutely good and loving. The concept of absolute already means that I have no one to ask. For example, how can you ask, for example, your mother who loves you absolutely already to be kinder towards you?

Therefore, all the aspirations, the entire work, of a person is to change himself, to pull himself, to become like God. That is why a human being is called “Adam” from the word “Domeh – similar.” He has to reach this level, to attain it.

Thus, Kabbalah is not related to any religion in its relation to the world and is called science.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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The Free Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can any person, including me, rise to the upper level, appealing to His nature? Can I consciously rise to that level or is it only based on my feelings? If we talk about consciousness, does Kabbalah distinguish between reason and mind?

Answer: Kabbalah says that the human essence is composed of desires and thoughts. The desire is the main thing because it is the real matter of the world. The desire spins electrons and molecules, causing connection and disconnection of elements; the desire is everything.

But on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, the desire is carried out instinctively, compulsively. Everything acts like this, including the people who also belong to the animal level.

A person who begins to study Kabbalah tries to rise to the next level of desire, that is, to change from the property of reception to the property of bestowal. Then he begins to use reason, but not the one that exists next to our egoism in order to gain more in every movement, in every case. Animals also have such reason, as does any plant or stone that all the time tries to take the best position relative to the force of gravity or to preserve its structure. We are speaking about the free mind.

Freewill appears only when a person has two opposing forces—to receive and bestow. And new real reason appears between them. It is not the one that is attached to the desire and helps it gain more, calculating its actions, but the reason that arises on the oppositeness of two desires and causes the creation of a middle structure, consisting of both forces, reception and bestowal, the so-called the middle line. A person who has these two forces and builds himself out of them, is actually free and reasonable.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1

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