Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

We Are The First!

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to be thankful for our fate, for being chosen to clearly know what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about and to present this to the entire world. We are the pioneers! We are the first of all the generations throughout our entire evolution. For billions of years, creation has been through a great chain of transformations. Finally, today, we are the first who can master this method and leave it ready to use, to be applied by those who follow.

We realize it on ourselves. We develop it in the connection between us, based on what is happening between us in the groups, in the connection. On this basis, we write new articles and study the materials about the types of connections between us. Through this practical work, we offer it in a realistic manner to all of humanity.

So, we are researchers, we are the pioneers of its practical use. On one hand, we have to be grateful for our fate, and on the other, we must be responsible for having been given this chance. According to the pace at which all of humanity is developing, we see the extent to which it feels the need for a new method of living.

Billions of people all over the world are asking: “What should we do?” We have to present all of this to them.

So, in the internal connections between us, we must not forget that we are doing this not only for ourselves since then we would be like egoists. We are doing this not only to reveal the upper force, its plan, and to feel it, gain understanding through the feeling, and study it in reality, but also in order to bring it to the rest of humanity.

Our internal movement should be accompanied by external expansion. These two actions should be balanced like organs in the body that operate as they should: They both receive and bestow. It is very important to remember the rest of the world and the upper force that created us so as to raise us to it. If we include all these components inside us, we develop correctly and very quickly.

We have been through so much already: many conventions, meetings, and unity evenings. However, today, we are in a situation where we simply must demand from ourselves and from the upper force its actual revelation so that we actually will begin working with it between us, so that all of us and the upper force that is felt between us will be revealed as one whole.

We should demand very clearly that our prayer, our demand, is fulfilled. Each of us should not just wait, but by every action we make, move forward with the right demand to feel the Creator through unity.
[73624]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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Empty Philosophy Or Practical Science?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOver the course of the many years that I’ve been explaining the method of integral cooperation, I give the example of our physical body, which is made up of different organs. All the organs seem to operate on their own: the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, or the liver. Each operates at its own pace and order and in each there is an internal program, a software, but everything is based on cooperation.

Although they all operate on different planes, at a different pace, with totally different internal tasks, they should all have one collective task: to keep the whole body in a balanced state, which depends only on the right cooperation of each corrected part. A corrected part is the part that cooperates with all the others, and its internal work is aimed only at agreement with all the other parts of the body.

We, too, should each feel ourselves as small organs in one big body. The creation of our collective vessel of perception, of a new sensory organ, depends on the fact that no one operates as a separate body, but in agreement with all the other parts of the system.

So everything should be directed not at our individual internal development, which actually doesn’t exist, but only at connection!

There are still many people who come to us and study from the books, but only in order to know, to see what is written there. But they are not included in the general work of connection and unity, and so they don’t understand where all this is headed. “Oh well, it’s a science, a theory, that speaks about exchanging places and movements in some imaginary space, upwards and downwards, about different connections between some kind of unfamiliar objects. Where are they? It is all rather abstract because in our world all this doesn’t exist. So what should I do with this?”

These people don’t understand that they have to connect between themselves, and only in the connection between them will they begin to see through these ties: “Where are these parts? Where is this level of Bina, the giving, the receiving, the restriction of the desire, the rising above the desire in the connection with others, receiving from them and bestowing upon them?” Until they try to implement all this in the connection between them, the wisdom of Kabbalah will be an empty philosophy for them, which doesn’t say anything.

So the main thing is not to study what is in the books, but to yearn to feel what we study, to implement it in our life, in the connection between us. Otherwise, like our teachers tell us, a person “dries up.” He simply doesn’t see the results of what he reads. Of course, there are many interesting things there, lots of information, but it is just some abstract study and nothing more than that.

While the method itself is very practical, and we have to implement it between us.
[73628]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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A New Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur program today amounts to clarifying a primary and fundamental element in our development: the search to sense the upper force. Much in this search pertains to man’s psychology because we begin at the most basic psychological level, just like any regular person in our world. But then from basic psychology we start ascending higher. Why? Because the aspiration that we have within and work with is called the point in the heart.

That is what we must develop; that is what we must expand. This point has to become massive to us, bigger than anything else, filling the entire horizon. Through it I need to start sensing nature, its eternity and perfection, harmony, the upper force, information—everything! This can only happen if I cultivate my point in the heart.

The point in the heart no longer pertains to simple psychology. It appears only in special individuals after a great many lives over the course of their evolution, having arrived at a state when the desire for a new layer, the “Human” degree, arises in them. They’ve developed through the still, vegetative, and animate levels of matter and lived through many different incarnations as humans in our world, but now a new desire emerges in them, which begins to gradually develop them toward sensing the upper force of Nature.

Today this desire is emerging in millions of people around the world. And we have the method to actualize it.
[73744]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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Feeling The Force That Controls Destiny

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll our work is to find in ourselves the opportunity to sense the force that fills the world, controls the world and our destiny, leads us through life, and determines all the events in it—what will happen to each of us, every minute.

To do this, we need to constantly delve into ourselves, specifically through ourselves. We will not be able to find anything in the mechanical world that surrounds us. Only through refining our senses, increasing our inner sensitivity will we begin to feel the fine layers of nature as well as its information layer. This layer will reveal to us the entire program of creation, everything that should happen to us, and what has already happened, and will raise us above the sensation of time, space, and mechanical movement into an entirely different area.

Thus, we have to constantly go deeper and search in ourselves for the sensation of this information layer, of this force that controls everything. It may be called the basic force of nature, the upper force of nature, or the Creator because it creates everything and contains the whole program of creation. To accomplish this, we get together to increase our impact on each other and thus help each of us to unite together.

We start to create a new sensory organ in a collective feeling, which is able to reveal for us the force that surrounds us and penetrates everything. Being in such constant and correct connection between myself and others, I rise above myself, exit myself, and begin to feel what is between us. This becomes most important.

But everything else is my own, like my beastly body. When I desire to exit myself completely, to feel what is outside of me, there I find this upper force of nature.

Connecting with it is the goal of our existence. And we all want to achieve this.
[73747]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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Do Not Let The Door Close

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A new door was opened to us at the convention in Vilnius. How can I put the foot in and not let the door close?

Answer: First of all, we should fear losing it, be in awe of the greatness of the state we have achieved, and strengthen our impression as much as possible.

We will not get through this door at once. It will take months to do so. After all, we are entering a period of labor, and childbirth happens in different ways: Sometimes it takes a couple of days, and sometimes a couple of weeks. Anyway, no matter how much time we may need, we are talking about a process that includes labor pangs, but not about a one-shot event.

We are on the road, and if you want the process to keep on developing, you should accept it correctly. You continue your path not because it is pleasant and exciting. You do not care about the state itself—the main thing is to know that it brings maximum pleasure to the Creator. You have to turn the vector from reception to bestowal.

If you add this intention, you will advance. True, it will immediately leave a bland taste in your mouth, but it will ensure your progress. Later, you will taste the real flavor, but already in contact with the Creator, in bestowal. And now you summon the Light to realize this.

But if you are inspired by pleasant sensations, if you are glad that you have finally tasted the delight of unity with friends, this feeling has a bitter taste of egoism and thus will not stay with you. After all, you need to be advanced, so your state will be taken from you. You will get a fair shake, forget about it, go searching for, and again approach it, but you will be more ready to be imbued with intention, not feeling.
[73724]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/2012, Questions about the Convention

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Solution To The Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanNature will not change. It guided us for thousands of years in the development of our egoism until the point where our egoism became integral. We cannot do anything about it.

It is illustrated by recent events in Europe. There was a multitude of thoughts and agendas on how to divide Europe, European market, and the commonwealth anew—to separate and part ways to make it easier to bear economic problems of each country.

However, it proved impossible, and as a result Europe took the direction toward further integration and deepening of mutual relations. This decision came about literally in a matter of the past few months since no one had wanted it before. It’s simply impossible to separate even a single country. The separation of Greece, Spain, or Portugal from Europe will cost much more; it is by all means more beneficial to maintain the unity. It is being calculated and decided on the highest levels.

It turns out that we have arrived at such a state where we are obligated to be correctly and integrally interconnected. As to how to achieve it, we do not know. But, perhaps, if we do find out how to solve it, we will overcome all the crises: the family, economic, education, societal, governmental, and global crises.

Hence, the problem lies within man: How do we change ourselves to be in homeostasis, in balance with Nature? The fact is that the main law of Nature is the law of balance. Nature constantly gravitates to equilibrium. It’s the law of physics.

The equilibrium is supported by Nature on all levels: the still, vegetative, and animate levels. And only man breaks this law with his excessive egoism: He consumes more than he contributes, pollutes more than nature can reclaim, and so on.

This violation of the law of balance is basically the problem of our crisis today.

How do we reach balance? It can be done only if we begin to correct man himself. Therefore, the problem lies in man—in his correction. Furthermore, this problem is large and global. If we do not desire to be similar to nature, if we don’t want to consume only to the extent to which we contribute, nature will force us toward this through the crises.

We see that every day hundreds of thousands of people become unemployed because we do not need the majority of the production; it was excessive. We were producing absolutely unnecessary things or making them become obsolete sooner so we could produce, sell, and profit more.

Ultimately, if we ourselves do not curtail production to the necessary, reasonable level so as to exist sensibly, nature compels us to do it through the crisis. Unwillingly, we find ourselves unprepared, thrown out onto the street. Thus we see what is happening with the entire humanity.

The world is enveloped in a severe crisis. If we do not take it under control, then within this year we will see what terrible consequences it can still prepare for us. Hundreds of millions of people will lose their jobs, and we’re not ready for it.

What are we to do with them if, say, we come to a state where we indeed do not need any excessive production? With the modern technology people don’t have to work as much. At a maximum, 10% of the population can provide the entire planet with food, clothes, shoes, and everything else that is necessary if they work approximately two hours a day. What will people do with the rest of their time?

Here, we arrive at an interesting conclusion: Man must work, but not manually and not to produce the material product, but to produce the internal and spiritual product. He has to reform himself into an integral part of society and nature. Thus he will generate positive energy and will put himself, society, and nature into balance. Then we will receive from nature the right bestowal and will be interconnected with it correctly.

Many scientific articles cover this topic. Many distinguished experts with whom we established contact are working on it.
[73540]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson

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“We” Is A New Sensor

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs of today, we are still on the level of the animate development. We have passed the still, vegetative, and animate levels of development and have not reached the level of “Human” yet. The level of “Human” is the collective image in which we are all tied together integrally.

What does the integral connection give us? Why does nature push us in that direction by its law of balance, obliging us to connect?

Today we perceive the world through our five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. If we are connected integrally, we will begin to feel both ourselves and others as if one integral whole, and a new sensation of “we” will appear in us.

This new integral sensation, this new sensor, will enable us to feel the integral nature. We will begin to feel the force of nature, which surrounds, drives, and manages us and which gives rise to all phenomena. It is the force that determines our future, our fate.

We begin to feel the flow of life—the past, the present, and the future—as one flow of information. This is what we can feel when we acquire an integral connection with others. By that a person rises to a level that is higher than his beastly body and begins to feel what exists beyond matter—the forces, the currents that exist outside us, above us.

This is called the level of “Human,” the level of additional information, that which determines our entire life. Nature pushes us towards this level so that we will know the meaning of our life and its purpose. This is what the integral connection between us gives us.

So, we face a very interesting problem that seems to have an easy solution. But although the solution is at hand’s reach, it totally contradicts our ego.

This is why we are concerned with spreading this knowledge that reduces suffering: We want to start feeling this necessity not by suffering but by recognition; we want to understand why everything happens the way it does in advance. When a person begins to see that the world is global, why and how he is interconnected, he already begins to foresee the events and to understand what and how should happen if we act one way or another.

We hope that this method will become the method of making new decisions, and that humanity will be able to come out of the crisis—not only the economic crisis but the general crisis as well.

The crisis is actually the birth of a new state. It is like labor pains, when the baby makes an effort to come out of the womb, into our world. We too are currently going through the same turning point in our awareness, in our understanding of the world and of ourselves.
[73525]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson

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The Discrepancy Between The Two Systems

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe fact is that by constantly developing, the ego was pushing us forward. We always wanted something new and were always chasing something. But today the ego has become flat; it has reached its maximum and, most importantly, become global. It has retired into its own shell.

As a result, we have become closed between ourselves and totally dependent on one another. We have created a closed analog system between us in which everyone is so dependent on others that through a chain of four acquaintances each of us is connected to all the people in the world. What’s more, today there is no need to fight: It’s enough to cut off a certain country from the mutual cooperation with other countries, and it will immediately collapse because it cannot exist on its own.

This was never the case before. A country could isolate itself and be independent. It could survive on its own. It had enough resources to produce energy, food, and everything the population needed, and there were no special problems.

But today we cannot do anything if we are not connected to tens of other countries. We have to buy, sell, and exchange goods, to constantly receive, send, and so on. We’ve become global, we’ve become closed. It wouldn’t be a problem if at the same time we were changing ourselves.

So, we have remained the same individualistic egoists while the world has become global and closed. Hence the discrepancy between the two systems.

On one hand, there is a discrete system, in which each of us wants to live alone: “I don’t need a family. I don’t need children. I don’t need anyone. I want to be independent and not depend on anyone.” This is how our ego speaks today. On the other hand, nature shows us the opposite: You are totally dependent on everyone. You cannot exist by yourself. You must be connected to everyone, and not only you, but your society, your state, and the whole world.”

This is the contradiction between the two systems: the general system we are in and our personal, individual, internal, system. This is the crisis since the two systems cannot work together. And this is what we feel.

So how can this problem be solved?
[73547] 
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson  

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The Final Landing Of The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn a way, we have always known what to do and where to go. Nature has always pushed us from behind: We wanted to evolve, to do more and to expand, to develop science and technology—everything we could.

Today we don’t want anything. We got stuck, turned silent. Our ego, which throughout history was humanity’s driving force, has ceased to work. It doesn’t evoke any urges or impulses in us, it doesn’t push us forward. We’ve been through many changes in society, we’ve developed, built, created, and made revolutions. Humanity has constantly tried to do something, to move forward. We were searching.

Today there is no search. There is no paradigm of thinking, no accurate, clear plan of what we want and in which direction to develop. This is what characterizes our times.

The main problem is that it applies to everyone. There was never something like this in history. All the countries and continents: Oceania, Asia, North and South America, Europe, the Far East, Japan, China, and Africa, all have all developed in their own way, at their own pace and were not dependent on one another.

Suddenly we’ve become so dependent that this problem has become global. We find ourselves in a world where everything is mutually connected. We don’t want it, but the mutual connection is so strong that it manifests daily and affects virtually each of us. If something happens somewhere in the world, it is surely and immediately reflected on us. We see what is happening in the stock markets in New York, Tokyo, Germany, or Frankfurt, what is happening with the oil or metals.… If there is an earthquake, a hurricane, or a volcano that erupts somewhere, it is reflected on everyone. We are in such a changing world that we cannot even imagine what to do next.

If we draw a simple graph of the development of the ego on a time axis, we will see that we used to develop more or less evenly. Only in the 20th century has our ego grown very sharply. We have made a breakthrough in every aspect of life: in technology, education, and upbringing, in developing the lands and conquering space. Suddenly we find ourselves on a “landing.” We’ve achieved the maximum of our ego, and it doesn’t push us anywhere anymore. We’ve reached this state since the end of the last century.

This is a very serious problem, which great men and great minds are dealing with. But today we are starting to research and understand it, and are beginning to realize what has happened.
[73550] 
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson 

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Developing A Feeling For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanNow, we are creating a new sense organ. The science of Kabbalah is not just the science of reception; it is the method of developing the highest sense organ in us.

It does not exist in a single person, but is revealed between people when they are trying to create this interaction between them that will reveal the Upper Force that will fill the entire space between them.

Only we can stimulate this detector, this sensor. It can appear only between us, not in every one of us, but between us. To the extent that we strive to get closer to each other and turn into one whole, we will discover this force that fills us according to the law of the equivalence of form, the law of similarity, balance, and homeostasis. This is the method of Kabbalah.

I remember when I started studying with Rabash and did not understand anything yet, he told me a few phrases that I remembered, although I did not understand what he meant. He said: “The most important thing is to develop a sense for the Creator Who fills everything, for this force of nature that surrounds us.”

To develop a feeling? I did not know what it meant “to develop a feeling.” In general by nature, I am a scientific kind of person; I want to understand instead of feel.

It took a long time before I realized that this is achieved not by the mind, but only by developing an additional sense organ.

But the feeling can be developed only if we cooperate among ourselves, turning into one whole, like this great force around us.

We have gathered here to unite, to create these conditions between us so that it manifests itself. To the extent of our connection, our getting closer to each other, this force will be manifested.
[73642]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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