Question: How can we make the convention in the U.S. unique so that it will connect the groups in America into one?

Answer: I don’t know whether we’ll succeed, but I have great hopes because the time has come.

Unfortunately, our friends in the U.S., even those who finished their studies at the Education Center and live in different places, still don’t understand or don’t see a need to unite. Quite possibly, at some point we need to organize a separate convention for them. The management of our Education Center in St Louis should take care of it.

Perhaps people didn’t study enough material on the importance of unification, about the fact that they can discover what they have learned about the upper world—how it manifests, becomes revealed, and is sensed in a person—only in unity, that is, not in a single person, but in a connection between us.

Where is this connection? Do they aspire to it? If they don’t yearn for it, they will not sense it. So they finished some theoretical course, and it all ended there.

Most important is practice, a practical revelation of the upper world for oneself. They are not doing it. Meanwhile, life is getting worse all the time. It pushes us towards unification, but not through the wisdom of Kabbalah, the good path, but through the path of suffering. I think that they should understand that after having a theoretical basis, it is best to realize it in practice, and so come to the convention.

I invite you all. Those of you who finished courses at the Education Center and live in the U.S., I would very much like to see you at the convention. Let’s make the most of it!
[76226] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012 

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Question: What is a convention for you?

Answer: For me, it is a desperate, serious work, tension, and great joy—everything together. It’s because I see how every second this huge general desire is boiling in a “pot.” And this desire works, even if people don’t realize it yet, and reaches the boiling point inside. I feel this, and all of it fills me and gives me strength.

Imagine, after a convention my hair gets darker. That is, there is an influx of energy there, and it actives all sources of life. So come to rejuvenate!
[76223] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012 

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The need for each of the friends is a very unpleasant necessity. We always divide people: These are more agreeable, these are less; we can better understand these, those ones less; these ones can be ignored; we can become closer with these, but should stay away from those, etc. We constantly differentiate the surrounding society, and this is very bad.

The concept “There is none else besides Him” means that you treat everyone equally. It’s very hard! Here we must constantly monitor our egoism, which always puts everyone in his place: This one is closer, that one is farther, I walk past this one, have to smile to that one, to greet this one, to hold that one’s hand, etc. Thus, we always position ourselves relative to others because these are animal feelings.

But all the points in the heart are exactly the same. That is why equal treatment and absolute leveling of our natural, earthly properties in order to remove them and not to see them at all are the main thing.

In spiritual work, there are no pleasant or unpleasant, near or far; there is none whom you understand or don’t understand. I mean it as spiritual work, not dissemination actions or daily work on the physical level. In the group, one cannot be less or more: Everyone is equal; otherwise, they are not friends.

Thus, removing all the animal earthly signs and placing all the points in the heart on the same level, constantly working so they are equal, equivalent for me, higher or lower than me, but equally important, I build myself so as not to see the friends’ bodies. This is very important and extremely difficult because egoism constantly automatically focuses on someone and ignores the other, etc.

There are dozens of people whom we don’t notice. And there are people who attract us. This must be cleaned, deleted. Everyone is equal. The soul is one, and there are no differences in the spiritual realm, the upper Light levels everything.

That is why the group is such a training place, such a laboratory aimed at the goal that is necessary for aligning oneself according to the goal in all respects. One person cannot achieve this. He needs the sights, through which he will look and align the axes to hit the target accurately.

This is one of the most important axes. A person removes everything earthly and sees only the point burning in his friend and aimed at the goal. He appreciates him only for this, only in this is he his friend, he wants to be his equal only in this, he wants to unite only with this. All the rest, the earthly, will die anyway, will be corrected in some way, it doesn’t matter; the most important is the point.

After all, the mother loves her child regardless of his character, properties, etc.; he is like that by nature, what can you do? She loves him because he has her point. Of course, this is egoistic animal love. And initially, it must be as the egoistic animal in us because we all come from one soul.

And then we’ll see how everyone “gives birth” to each other in the spiritual world. If we are equal, then each of us is greater and smaller than the other. Our AHPs are combined with the Galgalta ve Eynaim of the friends, and their AHPs are included in me and give birth to me. Working in this way, the whole system becomes integral. I become included in someone; he becomes included into me, and thus everyone in everyone else: all the billions of particles.

Therefore, we must understand that thus we are fathers/mothers and their children for everyone. The mutual inclusion of Galgalta ve Eynaim in AHP in a sphere creates this integral drop.

There are a lot of settings. There are, in general, a few of them, but we interpret them in this way because it’s very difficult to withstand the truth; we have to divide it into components, the sum of which will give us the exact sight to the target, to unity. In our properties, this unity is composed in all kinds of paths towards it. Altogether, they help us act: by suffering from behind, by striving forward, with enthusiasm for the goal, by seeing oneself higher or lower than others, etc.
[76022]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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The world is the picture, the hologram that the Creator displays for us today, and we are in it. We are involved in this illusion, and it is the reflection of our inner qualities.

Looking at the world, I see my reflection and can tell from what inner qualities I am made up. I like this person and that one not so much; this is like this and another like that, etc. Hence, all these qualities are inside me. Each of my little qualities draws a certain image for me: each of us, everything in the world from the still, vegetative, and animate nature.

That is why if I see something negative around me, I see this deficiency in me; otherwise, I would have seen only the absolute even upper Light.

Of course, we are very far from this degree. But we can approach this state and reveal it only if we are seriously engaged in self-assessment of what we see.

Therefore it is said that the world was created only for the absolute righteous or absolute sinners. When a person admits that he’s a sinner, he understands that he’s opposite to the Creator. When he sees and justifies everything—only if he doesn’t lie to himself, but really sees the world full of everything good, kind, perfect—then he’s directed to the Creator and is called an “absolute righteous.” If he has a mixed assessment, a mixed view of the world, then his state isn’t fully conscious. He’s missing the realization of evil and should continue to work on himself.

It turns out that everything depends on our clear perceptions: if I feel good in the world, or if I feel bad.

By the way, I hear from many of our friends that they were expecting something greater from the convention. They thought that now they would “grow wings” and would be raptured away.

That is, people who have been studying for several years don’t understand yet the essence of our correction. And this is natural that they don’t understand! In no way I am laughing at them or blaming them. I know what school I went through, and how difficult it was, very difficult! People don’t realize that they have to correct, no matter how paradoxically it sounds, their attitude towards the world.
[76114]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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Question: During our work at the workshop, I had a feeling as though I was a guard for my friend. Is such a state justifiable? Or is everyone equal in a circle and has a right to make sure their friend is not diverting from the goal and from the topic of the workshop?

Answer: I have to perceive the group as something absolutely perfect: an eternal, infinite, and perfect system. I enter it as a small one into something huge that is forming me.

If being in the group I see or hear something unpleasant from my friends, something that seems to be bad or imperfect, I have to understand that this is because I am this way. In other words, the Creator sets me up so that I would perceive everything precisely in this way. He is playing with me since, as it is written, “there is none else besides Him.” I have to justify Him and say that I perceive everything in the negative way because of my incorrect properties.

If I exist in connection with my friends, I cannot see anything negative in them, but only perfection! Everything else is either my or the Creator’s fault.
[75945]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1 

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Try to constantly see two states: the real state that you see and the desired state. Most of the time we are in a rather latent state, and the way a person sets himself depends upon him. If you are given positive or negative awakenings from Above, you begin to act. But if you are not pushed from behind, you are half asleep, like in a dream. It’s here that the major work is concentrated, the search for how to spur yourself on. This is in order to see your state in the true Light and to imagine the desired state, so that the gap between them will show you how wrong you are and how much more there is to do. Then you begin to look for the means to change your state.

It all depends on the awakening from below, but you get the energy for that from the outside because there is nothing in us except for a machine that wakes up under the influence of an external force. Just like an engine that operates only if it continuously receives fuel or electricity. The moment the energy supply is cut off, it immediately stops. This operating energy can come from the actual source, from the Creator, and oblige our engine to run, or it can come when a person summons it by himself. This is the human part of the engine, when a person connects himself to the electricity network and operates himself.

You can operate yourself only by the group, by the equivalence of form. The more adaptable you are to the upper energy source, the electricity supplier, in bestowal and in a desire to do good to others and the Creator, the more easily you’re able to connect to the source of electricity, to the Light. And then the Light will influence you and operate your engine.

The energy of life always comes from the outside, from the Light. We constantly receive a tiny spark of vitality that revives us and enables us to exist. In addition to this spark, we receive an awakening from Above, according to time, to different periods, and to individual and global changes that one must go through.

Everything always depends on our awakening below which is the main part. All our advancement is by the awakening from below, all the 125 steps we have to go through, as we perceive a deficiency on our part. We have to operate our machine ourselves, by yearning for bestowal. By operating this way we advance step-by-step and each time our actions become more qualitative.
[76044]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In the conventions, especially in America, there are people who stand on the side and don’t connect easily. What is more, since they know in advance that they will spend three days leaning on the wall, it sometimes deters them from coming to the convention. What would you suggest that they do? How can we help them?

Answer: I definitely suggest that they come and be included in the crowd as much as they can. As it is written: “Educate a child according to his way.” People who find it difficult to connect in a circle will find one another. They may form their own circle, and within it, there may be someone who will shake them up a little.

Don’t object to the convention and don’t force yourselves. Everyone has a place there. After all, we are all different, and there are people who cannot connect with others. They sit on the side and listen, absorbed in their own thoughts. Or on the contrary, there are those who make too much noise. These people still don’t feel where they are and in what they are included. Their inner pace isn’t synchronized with everyone else yet, and either the euphoria or their introversion is controlling them.

Most of our friends already know and understand the method. They are working on advancement in a more or less methodical manner and are experiencing ups and downs. If a person really understands that he is detached from the general flow aimed at the goal of creation, it is especially important for him to come because it is a sign that in the meantime, he is going through special preparatory states. The influence of the environment will help him through it. I strongly recommend that you register.

On the whole, there are special people with special sparks. This is how they were created, and it isn’t a matter of heroism or weakness. The main thing is to realize what is within you. Just carry out the role that nature has given you, and eventually, if everyone makes his special and unique efforts, we will all become truly equal, with no traces of the previous differences.

Ultimately, everyone does equivalent work. We simply don’t understand yet how perfect the general system is.

But on the way, there are differences among us. Some people have special jobs; it is as if they have their own history, their own development. Accordingly, they should be treated differently. They look different from others, and their ups and downs are different. They act differently externally and go through different internal states—in contrast to any logic of our world.

Similarly, in the scientific and philosophic community, there are exceptional geniuses. Quite a few clever people have demonstrated exceptional attributes. In our case, it is even more prominent. However, for such people in particular it is very important to be with the community because in relation to them, we are like humanity in relation to us.

The sparks in the heart are divided into two parts: GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). Those of us who belong to GE are special. Sometimes, they feel a strong aversion toward society, but it is very important for them to come to conventions even though they feel no need to mingle with the friends, regarding them as humanity. It is still essential.
[75970]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2012, Writings of Rabash

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The most important thing in spiritual work is to direct yourself towards the goal using many parameters while taking into account the various surrounding conditions that guide you directly to the target. 

It is the same in our world. Let’s say I’m an artilleryman shooting at a distant target. I cannot see this target since it’s 15 miles away from me. I have to calculate how much TNT I need to use relative to the mass of the cartridge so that it would reach its target. In addition, I need to take into account the humidity of the air, wind, temperature, and thousands of other parameters. Previously, we used tables, but today all these numerous conditions are programmed into a computer. This isn’t simple.

In our world, we first fire a few test rounds, use them to determine the deviation, and only afterward do we take a shot at the target.

But there is no such thing in spirituality; we cannot “shoot” and calculate our error, checking whether we “hit” the Creator or not. We need to account for all conditions. The group is created for that purpose, and all the necessary components are there for making the calculations to reach the goal. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is a science about how to come to the possibility of revealing a new property within us: the property of the revelation of the Creator.

Moving forward isn’t sufficient for us because I cannot see anything in front of me. I am in such a state where I don’t know what “forward” means. I don’t see it! Perhaps I’m moving in a completely opposite direction? A big question mark hangs over all of this. What can be done?

This is why our egoism exists, so that by pushing off it we could determine “What exactly is that something that’s “not it,” not our egoism? And in this “not it” is precisely where the Creator would be. That is, egoism operates in everything except for just one direction, the one opposite to it.  

In order to find the one and only goal, the property of bestowal and love, which is called “Creator,” we start from its opposite. We don’t know it because all of our desires, including the love and bestowal in our world, are all egoistic and don’t have anything to do with spirituality, with the true and genuine property of bestowal and love. We can forget about that, we’re not in it at all; nobody is, in any manner whatsoever!

In order to lead us into the spiritual world and to orient us correctly, we were given egoism, the group, the study, and finally, the upper Light, which ultimately performs this spiritual surgical operation. It “operates” on us with its ray and liberates the soul, “releasing it outward.”
[76019]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Lesson 5

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Question: Why is it so difficult to imagine the next level?

Answer: It’s not a lack of imagination, but a lack of interaction between people. If we were playing in the yard with friends, we would imagine everything clearly since there is mutual interaction between us. One person says something, another adds something, and in this way, a game is created.

Whereas here, we can’t get together yet; we can’t imagine the next degree. We are missing the mutual help. I still don’t feel the support of the friends in this. It isn’t your fault or mine. For this, we need training sessions that will gradually give rise to the next degree.

This level doesn’t exist within us yet. We are not to blame for this. We simply need to put in effort, and the upper Light will begin to form it within us. It already is building it within us, but this takes time.

We constantly yearn for the next level like children; we don’t understand, play, and make mistakes—but we want it! It doesn’t matter what we want because it just might not be what we need. However, these efforts invite the upper Light that gradually forms the next level within us: At first, it does it in our imagination and then in cloudy sensations. Afterward, the upper Light forms together both the sensations and thoughts, certain understanding of what should happen. And then what we learn, feel, and hear from other friends adds together. We suddenly begin to receive their thoughts and desires, and all this connects together.

If it’s difficult for us to imagine the next level, it’s a sign that we haven’t attracted enough of the upper Light so that it can give us as least some kind of impression, some format of the next degree. However, I am sure that we will overcome this.
[75793]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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We cannot imagine how much the distance between me and the Creator and the distance between me and my neighbor are the same. We call one who is close to us “neighbor,” while he is the same distance away as the Creator. At the same distance!

Try to reach the neighbor not physically but internally, and you will discover the same abyss. That is why we underestimate what has been given to us. “Well, why do we need the neighbor? All sorts of figures are walking around here. …” We cannot imagine that this is the absolutely accurate indication of our attitude towards the hidden in nature. Just as the Creator is concealed from me, so is my friend hidden from me.

Imagine, how much of this chasm we have not yet revealed between us. All the time we gloss over it, fill it with something superficial, but we don’t even see this huge black abyss.

However, if you seriously work in the group, then to the extent of your work, you begin to understand that you have to strike precisely at this point; here you’ll reveal everything. Just don’t forget that by working out the relationship with the friends, you work out the relationship with the Creator. The end of the action must be in Him; then we will get the upper Light.

This is the difference between the method of Kabbalah and any other method, because when we reach the end of the action, pointing at the upper force, we receive the upper Light that changes us. The main thing is not to forget that all our actions are aimed at getting closer to Him, to this upper force, at becoming similar to it, dissolving into it, acting like It, attaining at Its level, understanding, and connecting so that my entire inner part is absolutely equal to it.
[76025]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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