Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

The Obstetricians Of Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe group is very important to us because it can become a “spiritual obstetrician” for everyone, the force that pulls us out of feeling only this world into an additional sensation of an external reality. If it weren’t for the group, we would feel pain, pressure, and troubles within the “womb” of this world until we finally found the force that could deliver us to the Light.

Therefore, even if our world is filled with suffering, by itself it is not enough to deliver us into the spiritual world, that is, to give us the “beyond corporeal” perception. The power of suffering isn’t enough; we need another force.

Today we are experiencing the spiritual birth of all of humanity, and our group, the world Bnei Baruch group has to get ready for the role of the “obstetrician” to the whole world. We are being prepared for that now, by being developed faster than the rest of humanity. We are being pushed a little from behind and mainly are being pulled forward.

Unlike the others, we don’t only experience troubles in this life, which we could do without, but we also feel the force that pulls us forward. This is the “obstetrician” that wants to help us be born faster, so that we will come out and become the “group obstetrician” for all of humanity, helping them emerge from the womb. This is the way things are today.

Accordingly, we should understand that we were awakened only for one reason, so that in the future we will help the world. It is only for this that each of us was rewarded with the force that pulls a person from this world to the upper world. All our actions should be coordinated with our group, with all the other groups, and with all of humanity.

Humanity is going through  a period of great suffering and pressure, but there is no force to pull it out, there is only a force that pushes from the inside. On the whole, it suffers aimlessly. People are asking themselves the urgent question: “What should I do next?” and they have no answer. This concerns the G8 and G20 conferences and the conferences of world leaders, scientists, philosophers, and political scientists; they are all searching, but since there is no pulling force, they don’t know what to do. Everyone has his own philosophy, his own point of view, but they have no solution.

For us it is a sign that we have to hasten our development and to be born as soon as possible in order to help them. Baal HaSulam talks about this in the articles “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” “The Peace,” and in other places. Eventually this is our role. Therefore, each of us must feel responsible and understand that he exists for the higher goal and not think about personal benefit but about how to become a partner of the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity). It is only through us that it can influence all of humanity and pull people out of the womb of this dark world, so that the birth will be smooth and without complications. In our world too, giving birth is a very dangerous thing.

Let’s hope that we will be able to help humanity in time. Since without this, as Baal HaSulam says, there may be nuclear world wars, natural disasters, hardships, and other disasters. The reason is that the external force, the midwife, that is our group, isn’t ready to become the conductor of the birth process, while at the same time the internal pressure, the “labor pains” are growing.

So we have to be very serious and feel responsible, understanding what we are up against. On one hand, the upper Light demands our cooperation regarding humanity and regarding every member in the group. We will not be born by sitting and waiting for one another. It is only by collective efforts that it will happen with everyone. On the other hand, humanity is in rage, furiously waiting for our help.
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From the Miami Convention 6/23/12, Lesson 1

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Convention In Miami – 06.24.12

Miami Convention, Workshop 3

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Miami Convention, Lesson 4

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Convention In Miami – 06.23.12

Miami Convention, Lesson 1

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Miami Convention, Workshop 1

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Miami Convention, Lesson 2

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Miami Convention, Workshop 2

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Miami Convention, Lesson 3

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Focusing On The World Of Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should one use the workshop in order to see the world through the prism of the group?

Answer: It will happen when you create a point of connection. This means that the force that is created between us will reach such an intensity that it will not let us disconnect from it. I will constantly want to be within it. I will understand that only from there can I judge everything within the light of truth and not be mistaken.

Only what I see through the shared focus of the group, the central point of the circle, constitutes the real world. In this way, I can judge and never be incorrect in my judgment.

All of this will be revealed to a person. Thus, he will not want to leave this connection, but will constantly aspire only to strengthen this same point of our unity. In this way, we begin to ascend the levels.

To the extent that we join together and intensify our connection, both quantitatively and qualitatively, we rise higher and higher on the spiritual ladder until we discover the Creator and the connection between us in the form of Partzufim and Sefirot. Then, we begin to see how everything that is described in the sources takes place between us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions” 

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The Union Of Plus And Minus

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should I do if during the seminar I’m thinking a lot about unity, but it’s difficult for me to feel it?

Answer: Our work is happening between the feelings and the mind, in the middle line. One needs to keep to this middle line in one’s thoughts, desires, intentions, and relationships, in everything. A one-way bias in any direction is not acceptable. Since all of this is being revealed in creation opposite to the Creator, it must be revealed in the middle line.

The whole of the nature exists only thanks to the fact that it is in some medium, the intermediate states between the absolute plus and minus, in a balance between extreme states.

However, on the human level, balance is not reached by averaging, like it is on the still, vegetative, or animate levels, but by the means that the minus and the plus are uniting together! The left and the right lines do not balance themselves out in the middle, but are united at the center, and that is why this middle line turns out to be on a higher level than their simple sum. This is the difference between the middle line in our world and in the spiritual.

It needs to be understood that all of these concepts, which we are studying on ourselves, will arrive at a balance and will provide the right approach for us towards the solution of any kind of problems.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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Correction Comes From Inside

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 69, “First Will Be the Correction of the World”: He said that first will be the correction of the world, then will be the complete redemption…that first the interior of the worlds will be corrected and subsequently the exterior of the worlds…and the root of Israel is from the interior of the worlds.

“Israel” are those who are drawn to Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), those who have the “point in the heart.” In the past in Ancient Babylon, a group of people discovered this desire and broke off from the others, and named itself according to its direction to the goal. Later this group became a nation that went through ages of development.

Now history is repeating itself, and again there is a group that organizes according to the same principle and is also called “Israel,” according to the direction of its development. It belongs to the interior part because it is the desires of Galgata ve Eynaim, the vessels of bestowal.

This is the meaning of “for ye were the fewest of all peoples.” However, by correcting the interior, the exterior is corrected too, though in small pieces. And the exterior will be corrected every time, until all the exterior is corrected.

Thus, it is enough to correct the “one percent” in order to correct the whole world, bit by bit, part by part.

This means that we have to find people who feel the importance of the goal of creation, of the interior development. They should connect so that they will feel and understand where our evolution is headed. By connecting and correcting themselves, they will pass on the correction to the exterior part as well and influence the whole world.

This is why we are having a convention in America, not for external dissemination, but for people who yearn to discover the upper force. We should provide them with the necessary conditions to unite, so that they will be able to fulfill the correction and then it will flow from them to the world.

They have to feel that they are responsible for that, since the exterior part cannot operate independently. Ordinary people, from the leaders to common folks cannot correct themselves. Only those who have the point in the heart can do that. We turn to them by explaining to them what the correction depends on and what they should do in order to help the world.
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From the Lesson in New Jersey on 5/10/12, Shamati #69

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Keeping The Finger On The General Pulse

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the convention we always feel infinite pleasure and fulfillment, but the moment the convention is over, there is immediately a heavy feeling of emptiness and reluctance to carry on. What does this hardening of the heart after the convention symbolize and how should we work with it?

Answer: I think that we felt these things after conventions we had in the past. We shouldn’t feel this way now because we don’t work from one convention to another any more, which is the reason that we used to fall after each convention, like after receiving a temporary gift, which we couldn’t hold on to.

Now we have to work continuously at building our collective vessel, and so we shouldn’t feel such deep descents although there will be descents and ascents on this way too, as there should be. This is because the upper Providence is revealed by the “round” and “straight” impact. During the straight influence, the upper Providence is revealed a bit and during the round influence, it summons periods of exile.

Every individual, whole groups, and even the whole world go through such “exiles” and “redemptions” alternately. These states are sequential, and nature is constantly changing: The seasons change, the geological eras, and the ecological eras all change in the endless process we are in.

We have to go through all these processes, but our advancement should be in a straight line, in the “middle line.” We will have to clarify it since we are the first to start this process, like the “last generation” of the egoistic world. So I don’t think there will be any special descents after the conventions. Our conventions will be of a different nature, which will be determined in the next few months.

I doubt whether the question about the descent after the convention will be relevant. But if someone still feels a descent, he should ask the friends for help. If the whole group is in a state of descent, it should turn to other groups for help since it depends on them as one man in one heart.

Thus everyone should help one another, keeping the finger on everyone’s pulse, taking care that not one friend will disappear and not one group will fall if it isn’t a purposeful fall.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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The Era Of A Round Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe last conventions indicate the beginning of a new era in which we have to practically fulfill everything we’ve learned for so many years, what we’ve read in the letters and the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash: the connection in the group, the unity with friends, and the clarification of the place inside the group where the spiritual world, the Creator, the building of the collective vessel, and the correction and the shattering are revealed.

Actually, all the descriptions refer to one action: the connection of all the shattered, distant, opposite desires that hate each other with the help of the Reforming Light, which we draw by our collective prayer, raising MAN, during the workshops, the different activities, and all the time until we perceive the spiritual goal of our life.

We should see this as a general trend that affects every aspect of our lives: educating children and adults, our groups, and the whole word, everyone, from the individual to all of humanity, and seeing this trend to connect in “circles,” which is the major trend leading to the correction of the shattering and the attainment of the goal of creation.

We can regard the whole way we’ve made so far as the time of preparation, and from now onward we and the whole world must start to build such circles.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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The Life Of Bestowal: Easy And Beautiful

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, gradually, a deeper and stricter interconnection between countries, nations, and people is being revealed. Even individually, we are connected through chains with several links. However, there is a certain problem: We are not yet capable of properly realizing this connection.

The modern crisis is expanding and encompasses the world. It will not end even though many are promising that soon things will begin to improve.

Problems will not end until we reach balance. After all, the cause of the crisis is imbalance, in other words, the lack of connection between us.

Here is where we discover the law of mutual guarantee. The Torah explains to us that in the end a person will love his neighbor as himself.

“Love” is proper systematic unity when every person works for the benefit of everyone, and there is absolute harmony between us. In the end, once we reach the final correction, all of us, once again, will become parts of a single soul, like organs of the body that operate in absolutely different ways, but exist in unified harmony, and this is why the body lives.

Every organ performs its own work, its own function, but within the framework of a common program that encompasses and obligates everyone to work together. To the contrary, when there is imbalance between parts of the body, illnesses appear.

We must treat our correction according to the same principle. Today, I exist in absolute, total egoism. I want everything to “spin” on my command, carry out my wishes, and think like me. We all begin our journey in this state.

In the first stage of working with myself, I must come to the degree of Hafetz Hessed. I do not get in the way of others. Like a cogwheel, I freely run on my axis, according to the desires of my neighbors. Do what you want with me. I am ready to “spin” at your request, as if I had no desires of my own, as if it were not me, but some supporting force intended for you.

We are speaking of a very high degree. After all, I must work with my egoism so that it will not get in my way of serving others.

To do this, I must know the desires of others and never get in the way of their realization, being absolutely neutral. We are referring to an enormous correction, during the course of which I set up screens of the zero, first, and second degrees over my desire.

Then, I rise to the next degree. I direct my desires, abilities, qualities, and the entire potential of my strength and energy, everything, toward the benefit of my neighbors. Now, my egoism is not just neutralized, I am not just freely running on an axis, but I am connected to my own engine that works for their benefit. This is the degree of love. I give you everything for the good of it.

This path stretches from our world to the world of Infinity (∞) through 125 degrees. Part of them I realize on the degree of Hafetz Hessed, being neutral, and the other part I realize by actively putting my efforts into benefiting my neighbors.

During the first stage, I correct 248 desires and during the second stage, I correct 365. Overall, the correction of 613 desires is called observing the commandments. In this way, the common desire is divided according to my inner structure.

All this is to achieve complete and absolute mutual guarantee, a state where I will interact with everyone in harmony, just like any other person.

Hence, it is clear the kind of correction to which mankind must come: Everyone will perceive and include within them the entire reality to the point of fully identifying with it. This is why Kabbalah is being revealed now, because if we do not know how to realize this, then our path will be very difficult and painful; indeed, it would truly be the “path of suffering.”

However, if we try to act in the group, our path will not be easy, but it will be good (the red arrow on the graph). We get together, feel each other, evoke the Light, and it works on us, influences us, and awakens us. By mutually feeling each other, we allow the light to do its work.

This is the essence of the method. You neither know nor understand anything, you are not capable of anything, but you want to “swallow” all the pleasure, and you only need to learn to evoke the Light. If you learn, you will achieve success so easily and beautifully, together with everyone in joy.
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From the New Jersey One Convention 5/12/12, Lesson 3

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A Big Turn

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday humanity is starting to look for methods that will enable it to manage life and to know something about the future. It’s now that the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed, and just like it was revealed to humanity in the days of ancient Babel so that they could correct themselves, now too it’s about to bring about a correction because we are at the second climax of the rising of the ego.

The first eruption of the ego took place in Babel, and now we have reached the peak of its growth, but on a new level which is absolutely wild.

Our ego is constantly growing, not gradually (linearly or exponentially), but in leaps. These sharp leaps bring about wars, revolutions, and hard times. Although a revolution can be an industrial or a cultural one, like in the Renaissance or the industrial revolution.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we understand what is happening to us. The point is that we are in a state of shattering which we must correct. There are only three states. In the first state, we are all together as one whole, and this is called the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

From this state of unity, we descend into “this world,” and from it we have to rise to the world of Ein Sof again. The difference between these three states is that the first state of the world of Ein Sof is corrected, our present state is corrupt, sunk in a huge ego, and in the third state we must attain correction again.

It’s as if we return to the same state we were in before, the same world of Ein Sof, but in the first state we were unconscious. We didn’t understand anything, like a drop of semen in a womb that hasn’t yet developed into an embryo and which means that it hasn’t developed into the “human” level yet although there are all the necessary conditions and potential for that in that drop.

The third corrected state which we have to reach now is special since in it we understand, feel, and attain everything that happens in the world of Ein Sof—the One who created us, His intention, the plan of this upper force, all of creation. We understand all this, feel it, and control it.

In fact, this is the goal of this whole big circle that we made. It’s a unique process: During the descent from the top down there is a shattering and corruption, and after the shattering there is the correction. So now in our world, we are in the worst possible state, in the most shattered state, under the control of the huge ego, which we have to correct. It’s corrected by the connection among us.
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From the Brazil Convention 5/04/12, Lesson 1

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