Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

The Birth Of Something New

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn our current global world we are all connected whether we like it or not, and this is dangerous because it can lead to an explosion, a world war. There are already talks about it, but there is no solution.

 

If the ego has already ended its development and doesn’t allow us to advance further, then the pressure that expands this integral system, which is totally mutually dependent, may bring about anything. And we will be ready to do anything just to break this connection. This is the uniqueness of our times.

Endless research studies show that we have reached a special point in our development that is unprecedented in human history. In the past, the growing ego constantly pushed us from behind, and we knew that life would be good for us or for our children. But today we don’t expect our children to have a better life than we have. On the contrary, soon we will totally deplete all the natural resources, pollute the environment, and run out of fresh water and clean air. There is no place where we can develop.

This crisis is the essence of a new humanity. It isn’t by chance that the word “crisis” (ρίσις) means birth in ancient Greek, a turning point from which a new life begins. So by examining the current situation, we have to understand: What is new here? What is being revealed to us?

The whole problem is that until now we have developed through one, negative force that molded different needs in us and pushed us forward to fulfill them. We lack a second, positive force that pulls and unites. This force doesn’t exist in our nature, in the human essence. No matter what we do, it is all meant for personal gain, to use others for our own benefit.

So where can we attain this second force? After all, our body and all natural systems are built on the cooperation of two opposing forces: plus and minus, hot and cold, pressure and

vacuum, etc. In the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature there is always one against the other, and life develops in the balance between these forces, in harmony, in the right absorption and emission. But on the “human” level and on the level of our consciousness the positive force doesn’t exist, only the negative force: I constantly want to use whatever I see and receive what I feel that I lack.

Today we are at the peak of this trend, and at this point we must realize that we lack the other positive force. It will not come to us instinctively, naturally; we have to develop it ourselves. Many scientists are studying this problem. In the ARI Institute we are in contact with thousands of experts throughout the world. They all agree about this issue, that without this positive force we will not be able to go on. But where can we find it? The answer is simple: a person has to stabilize his source by building a new society.

It is common knowledge that we develop by our society. A child left in a forest will grow like an animal and will not develop into a person. A person is the result of the human society he grows in. This is why we are so concerned about the friends our children play with, the school they go to, and who they see; society molds us.

If we want to create a new man that lives in harmony with others, then we have to establish the right environment for him in order to teach him the integral way of thinking that is based on bestowal and not on receiving.

Today as the mutual global connection is growing stronger, we already feel the connections among countries. In the future the social pressure will also increase. So we simply have to take care of ourselves.

Everything depends on whether we establish an environment. No one is happy about the current situation. The conflicts everywhere are more intense and the despair is growing. There is no other choice. It is time to develop the integral education, to draw the positive force. Then we will discover that the current crisis is revealing negativity only so that positivity will be placed opposite to it. In this way our society (on every level, up to the global level), like all of nature, will be based on two forces: the positive and the negative. In the middle, in the connection, in the balance between them, we will find new life, the true “human” level.

We will feel the harmony in nature that is concealed from us since we are working with only one force. By rising above the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and working on the human level by independently acquiring the positive force and balancing it with the negative force, we will become acquainted with nature’s perfect system, and discover the forces that manage us behind the screen of matter. We will suddenly discover this huge system that created life and that manages it through evolution. We will begin to develop consciously by discovering these forces and advance with them.

So our current state is actually our birth. Everything depends on us, and on whether we will manage to organize the integral education. It isn’t by chance that the current crisis is global and varied; it includes everyone and everything, and we have to find the general balance point to compensate for it.

Then, we will truly feel happy. We will begin to discover nature’s eternity, and will feel that we are on the “human” level, which is independent of our body. In our consciousness we will rise above it and discover nature’s “level of knowledge” that manages the whole universe. Many scientists are talking about this today, especially those who deal with quantum physics.

Eventually the integral education will open up new horizons for us in science, culture, society, and family by which we will acquire and create a new dimension of life, and promise ourselves a better future.
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From the Lecture in Chile 5/1/12, “Reaching the Internal Connection”

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Brazil Convention – 05.05.12

Brazil Convention, Lesson 2

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Brazil Convention, Workshop 2

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Brazil Convention, Lesson 3

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Brazil Convention, Workshop 3

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Brazil Convention, Lesson 4

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Less Indecisiveness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can we tell people who are still not sure of whether they should sign up for the upcoming convention?

Answer: It is very important to unite on the corporeal level to be able to move on to uniting the souls, in other words, to the correction of the common soul, which broke and separated into billions of pieces. A convention is necessary for a person. If it happens, let us say, once a year in your region, then you must try to participate in it.

It is hard to believe that the Creator would give someone a disturbance a person is not able to overcome when it comes to coming to the convention. After all, there is none else beside Him. Everything comes from the Creator. So can it be that a person’s correction is so hopeless that the Creator will put a hopeless obstacle before him and cut off all the ways? I cannot imagine this.

Simply, the analysis of the situation is entrusted to the person himself. He feels like there are “guards” on his way, who push him away—but this is done only so he would realize how necessary the convention and how important the goal are.

So less indecisiveness. Who knows when the next time will be and whether there will be a next time. I am ready to give you everything. Just come, and we will unite. It is the key to the correction of all the negativity that manifests in us because we are opposite to the Source.

Question: Can friends, who have lost their inspiration and strengths, use the convention to ascend?

Answer: The convention is a place of healing. We all unite physically and virtually—on the plane of this world—to overcome ourselves and attain a real unity. Even if we do not yet understand what it is, we still play pretend like little children.

So, a convention heals and raises the level from the corporeal to the spiritual. A convention generates a force that can heal anything. We need to see the source of energy and information in it, in other words, the manifestation of Light in our world. There is no better illustration of unity in the chronicles of the correction of the world than a convention.

And this is why I recommend everyone to participate in it, and be as friendly and united as possible. You already need to invest into the preparation and establish the closest contact possible with the venue, the theme, and the entire process the convention will take us through. Bring those who deserve it with you, and we will be able to ascend to a spiritual degree. It is like the miracle of the exodus from Egypt—let it also happen here.
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From the Brazil Convention 5/3/12, Lesson 1, Shamati #8

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Brazil Convention – 05.04.12

Brazil Convention, Lesson 1

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Brazil Convention, Workshop 1 

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Solving Problems

Dr. Michael LaitmanWomen ask the same questions as men during the seminar, they try to experience these things together with men, to quietly, internally participate in the solution of these problems, and at the same time push men towards the solving them. 

There are problems that pertain to women. And there are problems that they cannot solve because the solution lies in the connection between people. And this kind of problem can only be solved on the level of feelings between the men.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Workshop 4

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The Function of the Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I do not understand the function of the mind. How do you cancel it and what do you do with it?

Answer: You only need the mind to properly express feelings, different relations, draw conclusions, and then once again activate feelings. The mind works between the feelings: feelings – mind, feelings – mind. The mind expresses what I am feeling, the conclusion I am supposed to draw from this and how to connect to new feelings. The alternation of mind and feelings happens the same way as the alternation of ascents and descents. You can control it, we will get used to it.

Question: We know that the mind serves the feelings. How do you understand whether you are speaking from your mind or your feelings? What is the difference?

Answer: If you need to express feelings after experiencing them, you express them with your mind, generalize them, differentiate between them, and only after that do you express the prepared thought.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Workshop 4

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Should We Bring the Light to Our Families?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We, the men, understand how to interact in the group and what to aspire to. The question is how do we, to bring the Light that we attract to them at home in our families?

Answer: Free your wife of this suffering. I understand that you quickly want to tell everything all the good things that you learn. Take a break. I am serious, do not do it. All these things can only be realized in the group, and not outside of it.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Workshop 4

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The Creator – The Teacher

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I would like you to be with us as long as possible.

Answer: First, when people treat each other nicely, they think that it’s good to be near each other. I don’t know whether this is a better place—to be next to you.

Second, if you talk about me, the teacher stays with his students as long as they need. As soon as this need disappears, there is other work, he is transferred to another place.

So, there is nothing terrible here. You have to think only about how to realize what’s written in the primary sources and that’s all. Whether there is a teacher, no teacher, it doesn’t depend on us. And the most important is what we are doing now. If there are such groups, if women actively help them, support, directing towards the center of the group the desires to reveal the Creator, then everything will be fine.

There is no need for a teacher: The Creator, the Light will teach you. In reality, this is what we are trying to “catch” here—the method of working with the Light.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Workshop 4

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In Order Not To Forget

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are constantly repeating that the only thing that we should do is to work with the Light. But we are as if deaf and instantly forget about this. Why does this happen?

Answer: It is written in all the books about the work with the Light. And we forget because our egoism, our nature, is against this. The only thing that can help us is the environment. But the environment has to think about this, instead of talking, because our words give nothing. If the environment is constantly in this thought, in the search around this, you will not forget.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Workshop 4

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Psychological Training

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe should try to enact the system that has been offered to us by Kabbalists, the method that possesses the capacity to change the world.

We attempt to implement the Kabbalists’ advice as the only possibility for our beginning to sense our next step, unity, out of this material realm.

At this time, people try to be minimally connected and balanced with integral nature. However, through our unity with others, to the degree of the efforts we apply in order to connect with eternal, global nature and our inspiration to sense it as something tangible between us, we eventually will end up experiencing a genuine sensation of bestowal and love, a warm feeling, a wave that embraces us all.

This force has been concealed from us thus far, but it can appear if we all strive for it. If we possess even a tiny desire to achieve this state that, in fact, already was granted to us, and if we make an effort to unite, we can rest assured that we already possess all the prerequisites that are necessary to achieve unity.

All we must do is to wish to achieve a sensation of unity by utilizing the possibilities that we already have received. Our aspiration should be directed toward viewing and sensing the power that fills the entire universe. Then, we will realize that we are placed inside of the joint Kli (vessel) that is filled with warmth, Light, and bestowal like a fetus in its mother’s womb.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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