Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Chosen To Go Ahead Of Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanYou do not understand who you are! You are the first people who began the general correction practically. What can you do? A child who was born a prince does not understand that he is the king’s son; he runs around the royal palace and plays like ordinary children.

You do not realize how special you are—the first generation in history that has started correction. Everything that happened before was only preparation: Abraham’s group and Moses’ group. Similarly, the worlds were broken only for preparation, in order to build the system.

And we are the first generation that began the real correction of creation, and we have no choice but to disseminate it to everyone else. And all the generations, until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun) all of them will come after you. You will have to rise every time so that they rise after you, into your place. Every generation will push you higher and higher. We will always be at the top because new broken vessels will come and gather below.

I clearly understand this and feel how it should happen, but I have no practical experience of attaining such correction in the group. It has never happened before; you are the pioneers, and I would love to go through this together with you. Please take me!
[72223]
From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 5

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Correcting Age-Old Mistakes of Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Yesterday we finished re-watching all seven lessons from the convention in the Arava desert. Could you please sum up our state and assess the stage we’re entering?

Answer: For our next stage, starting next week we’ll be working on articles about the group by Baal HaSulam and Rabash, adapted to the modern reader. I hope that this will allow us to better feel and implement them, as well as to clarify the most suitable form to express them.

After all, it’s possible to make tons of mistakes here, which is exactly what people have done with the wisdom of Kabbalah over the centuries. It is the oldest science; indeed, there were no sciences in the world before Kabbalah. And it is precisely its breaking, meaning its incorrect interpretation, which has led to all that we see today in humanity. These consequences are manifested in absolutely everything: education, culture, family, economy, and political structure, in the entire world.

Kabbalah speaks of natural phenomena, the Creator’s actions, and our lack of understanding thereof results in our erroneous, egoistic development. Let’s hope that we will succeed at clarifying all these matters in depth, which will help us move forward. And then we’ll be able to develop the point to which we were able to ascend at the convention.
[72228]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, TES

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Intention Catchers

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have gathered here to catch our intention and not let go of it, even for a second. It is what’s called man, the head, the clarification; the rest is not important. If we immerse ourselves into this analysis deeper and deeper, we will suddenly feel that we exist in the common space. One is better, another is worse, but it doesn’t matter. Most importantly, we are all in one collective field and we clarify our intention together.

Each person may be in their own state, but when all analyze their intention, the inner prayer arises about how to clarify it better and in a more intelligible way: Whether my intention is egoistic or bestowing in where I looked, what I said, what I smelled, how I sat, or what I did—absolutely everything, on all levels. It can come to a point when we will begin to feel how the blood runs through our veins, how the nervous and other systems work inside our bodies.

A person will see the entire creation inside out, as transparent, and will realize that everything is working for the sake of egoistic reception. While he, seeing this, wants to clarify what “for the sake of bestowal” could mean.

As a result of the efforts to clarify the intention, we begin to feel the group. And then each individual effort adds up to the rest—in clarification of the intention and yearning to achieve the quality of bestowal. The intention to bestow cannot be private, individual. It is always connected with others’ identical intentions.

Hence, in this intention to bestow, in aspiration toward it, I suddenly begin to feel that I am not alone. Next to me are enormous forces that I suddenly notice, great sources of bestowal: the souls of Kabbalists of all generations. I feel like a little child who wants to join them: to grab their hand so they could lead me, just like a grown up takes a child by the hand, directs, and teaches him.

It is said: “A person’s soul will teach him.” My yearning for intention to bestow puts me into the collective circle. Then we achieve the connection, and any thought about my intention, which could be wrong, as well as my search for the right intention to bestow, everything together is included in our common prayer. And this prayer will be awarded an answer.

If we succeed to unite within this intention to bestow at least a little, we will understand the need for mutual guarantee when every one influences and helps each other. Each of us adds to the rest their own desire for bestowal. Then this prayer will reach the upper root, and this root will reveal to us the possibility to live in the intention to bestow.

Only then will we realize that this entire reality is, in fact, egoistic. Nothing changes between this and the upper reality, everything stays as it was: the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature. We only begin to see them from an altruistic perspective, through the prism of bestowal. Then we will indeed be looking through this reality, even through our own body, and we will see a reverse world operated by the opposite intention. We will see the infinite, perfect world, in addition to the one we see today.
[71246]
From the Arava Convention 2/23/12, Lesson #1

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The Guides Of The Last Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Studying the science of Kabbalah with the altruistic intention, the people of Israel must prepare themselves and all inhabitants of the world, until they evolve in order to take on this high work of love for others, which is the ladder towards the goal of creation, adhesion with the Creator.

This depends not on us, but on the root of the soul. On one hand, we are huge egoists with a coarse and ruthless desire, and that is why we are corrected in the last generation; on the other hand, we are characterized by the finest phenomenon, the purest Reshimot (informational genes), and hence we belong to the head of the last generation.

This antagonism, this contradiction takes in us extreme forms, compared with all other generations. Relative to us, it was easy for them to reveal the Creator, to attain bestowal and unity. They had an affinity for and understood this; it did not trigger so many rejections and disturbances. Perhaps, they experienced more material problems, but fewer spiritual obstacles.

Besides that, we have no alternative; we have not chosen our task. Anyway, in order to guide the world, to understand it completely, and lead all its inhabitants toward the goal of creation, we must know the whole system of the universe, the entire program of the Creator, and be able to realize it with all the souls that will be opened now and after us.

Until now, there was no correction in the true sense of this word. Everything was limited by the vessels of HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat) and HGT (Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet), which belong to Bina, bestowal. They were broken and corrected only in order to sustain the wholeness of the Partzuf, the force of bestowal. But where does this force act and what does it correct? It acts and performs corrections in the vessels of NHY (Netzach, Hod, Yesod) whose turn comes today.

Thus, we in fact belong to the most powerful, the worst and simultaneously the best part. So, it is not easy. Our path and analysis requires such efforts that are immeasurably greater than the efforts of our predecessors and successors.

However, it is said: “For the suffering, reward.” And this reward is an understanding, feeling, and attainment of the fullness of the world. Only we can understand and feel all of the Creator, absorb Him. And thus, we should be proud.

Peace in the world precedes the gathering of the exiles. As long as self-love and egoism prevail among people, the sons of Israel will not be able to serve the Creator in purity. Peace in the world is the only vessel that let us obtain the blessing of the forefathers.

We will reveal the Creator, but a complete picture can be seen only at the end when the whole world follows us and comes to correction. After all, the world is our vessel, and we will have to help the nations become corrected and join us. Only then will we correct the entire vessel, and all the nations will join in the work for the sake of bestowal, in unity.

As the head of this whole system, we will have to work, coming again and again as representatives, responsible managers. The Creator Himself puts us before that, and we should be proud of our unique mission.

No one knows why he has been entrusted with that, what reincarnations he has gone through, and why namely he and not his neighbor was given this role. And therefore, we need to respect all our friends, to love each of them because everyone is my partner in many reincarnations, that is, of corrections that await us. We will be included in a single system and become close to each other. That is why we need to understand more, strive to feel more internally, to be included in each other. Thus altogether, we come to the goal. Baal HaSulam and Rabash write a lot about this in their articles.

We need to see the friends not in their material form, but as various kinds of souls, sparks, points in the heart. It is interesting how the Creator arranges them. We will understand the correct order later, what the system HBD is, designed on the one hand to grasp the entire coarseness of the desire, and on the other hand, to understand what the Creator is and how to work with this vessel, which opens for all its depth.

The general order is following: The Creator is first revealed in us, in the desires of HBD; then, we adapt the purpose of creation for the desire of HGT, and from there, correction comes to the true vessels of NHY.
[72127]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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The Importance Of Light Is Realized In Darkness

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must realize the importance of spirituality from darkness, from the absence of its perception. Only in response to such a way of relating to it, does the spiritual world appear from the fog and is born from non-existence. It penetrates into my feelings awareness, and understanding; I am holding it and working with it, but only to the extent of its importance to me. Raising this realization of importance, I “pull” it out from the concealment into the light.

All of this is to ensure that my approach would be altruistic. Otherwise, I can never reveal the spiritual world, since I will always keep aspiring towards it with the intention for the sake of receiving, like towards everything in our world.

So how can I realize the importance of something that I do not see? How do I approach the hidden with the intention for the sake of bestowal? For this, the Kabbalists say the environment is needed, a society of friends. When they exalt the importance of something, even though not even one thread may be connecting me to the object of their praises, in any case I begin to value it.

It is the same in our world, what people around me think and talk about, what is important to them, becomes important to me. This happens to such an extent that I suddenly begin to value what I have never seen and felt. And now I start talking about how important and wonderful it is. Looking at me, many wonder: “Where does such an enthusiasm come from?” And I sometimes catch myself in a sudden reverence toward something I have seen on television and something I heard from others… This happens to everyone. Why? It is due to the common opinion. Society considers something important and it passes on to me.

Why is this the way we have to go into the spiritual? Why has advertising become so widespread in the 20th century right before our common spiritual ascent? It is so that we know to what extent we must use the environment.

For decades we have been convinced that the environment is capable of influencing us and through advertising can raise in our eyes things that do not have even the slightest importance. There is nothing in them except for social prestige. What others praise will be important for me as well. We are constantly being manipulated this way; they jack up the price for something, and the public is ready to pay three times the original price. The mass media, sociologists, and political scientists are doing this job very well and they have created a whole industry of artificial importance.

What’s more, we do not suspect that we are also “calibrated” in all of our internal parameters, qualities, and opinions. We have been “adjusted” and “configured” so that we would look at each thing in a certain way. In reality, I see the world with foreign eyes. And there is nothing that can be done here, I have already been “blinded,” I can no longer come out of this formatting. The same brainwashing is being experience by our children as well.

So what have we gone through the whole of this process for; after all, nothing happens by chance?

It is in order to understand that we are completely dependent on the environment and with its help we can raise the importance of anything. Thus, we know how to raise the importance of the spiritual world in our eyes although we do not see or feel it.

Advertisers show me, say, a small bottle of water and they describe it as if it were holy water. So if we were to study this mechanism, we would be able to do the same thing for our spiritual development. After all, nobody knows what the spiritual world is, nobody sees it, whether it is important or not, how important it is, how beneficial it is for us. We only know one thing, if we l attach importance to it in the circle of our environment, then for everyone it will be elevated to the highest place in our scale of priorities. We will absorb this feeling of importance of the spiritual world from “social advertising” and then it will be easy for us to feel it.
[71877]
From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 5

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Becoming Acquainted From Behind The Door

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 26, “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”: It is written, “The Lord is high and the low will see,” that only the low can see the greatness. The letters Yakar (Precious) are the letters Yakir (will know). It means that one knows the greatness of a thing to the extent that it is precious to one.

One is impressed according to the importance of the thing. The impression brings one to a sensation in the heart, and according to the measure of one’s recognition of the importance, to that extent joy is born in him.

In order to perceive the reality in which I am located and which I do not yet notice, I need to develop the sensitivity to and perception of it. We do the same thing in other cases as the laws here are unchanging.

Whatever and whoever I may be working with, may it be metal, wood, plastic, people, animals, or plants, I gradually begin to feel the material that I am working with. The more important it is for me, the more I am interested in it and the more I penetrate into its qualities with my perception. Now, even a simple piece of wood can tell me a lot, even though for an outsider it is not noteworthy in any way at all. It’s all in my connection with it, the importance I give it. It’s the same in everything.

A true master is he who values the material with which he works and values his profession, and thanks to it, he sees the full richness of its palette. Before, he used to be like everyone else, but now, having invested the efforts into the acquaintance with the material, he is becoming a specialist and distinguishes the thousands of facets and hues in it.

It is exactly the same in the spiritual. There is only one problem. If in our world we see in advance what we’re dealing with and then we penetrate into all of the finer points, then in the spiritual world, the situation is different. There, I will not get to the “working material” until I develop a special sensing organ. In our world I study what I already see, while in the spiritual world, I first have to develop the sensitivity, and only to that extent do I begin to feel the object in order to study it and to get to know it.

Thus, the realization of the importance precedes everything else. At first we must attach the importance to the spiritual object and only then do we discover it. So why then in our world is this not required? This is because my “approach to the ammunition” is egoistic here; I value what I already see. On the other hand, in the spiritual world, I must first exalt the object in my eyes, attach importance and value to it. To that I extent I get into it with a special relationship, with a sharpened sensitivity. I begin to feel it not from the doorstep, but from behind the door, from a concealed state. And then, when it begins to emerge, I study it and connect to it.
[71880]
From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 5

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Through Contradictions: Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalists give me “advice in the dark,” and in the end I’m like a child before a yet unexamined reality.

We give advice to little children in the same way, and they obediently follow the instructions because for now they do not know anything about the given subject and they trust the adults completely. Instinctively, a child believes us, as his nature instructs him to do, he or she follows us, with what we call the “eyes closed.”

We must follow Kabbalists the same way. Of course this causes discomfort; we are grown people, we want to feel and understand. “Wait, what exactly am I doing? Why do I do this and with what purpose? Where is this coming from?” Everyone has many questions and excuses.

It does not matter. If we were children, the upper world would open up before us in no time. But then we would be like “angels” there, not higher than “animals.” But if we wish to attain the degree of the Creator, then we cannot make all our actions and take all our steps through our natural aspirations, we must do it through faith above reason—in other words, against our egoism.

This constitutes all the complications. I am given a certain advice, but I fail to see logic in it because my mind and feelings pertain to this world. I do not see or feel that this is the exact way I need to act.

I am told: “Even if you do not understand it, you need to know that this is the way things are there in the upper world, since there, everything is directed towards bestowal, when here, everything is directed towards reception. There everything is in unity, and here everything is in separation. There everything is eternal, perfect, and aspires towards balance, while here it is the other way around.” But words do not help me. I am still standing on the foundation of this world, and I need to acquire the upper world from here.

Yes it is difficult on one hand, but necessary on the other. I do not need to transition from one world to another; instead, I must live in both worlds in order to be independent in relation to the Creator. It is similar to what the guest says to the host: “I want to be like you. You are a giver and I want to give. You give to me and I want to give to you. I depend on you and I want you to depend on me.” So I also need to be independent standing before the Creator.

We cannot even imagine it: On one had there is none else beside Him, and on the other hand there is something independent. And this state exists only because we assert ourselves in both worlds: I constantly build the upper world above this world. This is why the journey is so difficult. After all, my every action, my every step, must oppose my desire and understanding, everything I know and everything I have gathered and collected over the course of my entire life.

Everything is the other way around. Even when we speak about love and unity, in reality it is not the kind of love and unity we are accustomed to. They lie above our nature. In other words, I must reach a state where I do not seem to exist. It slightly resembles a mother who selflessly gives herself to her child.

But here I need to go to the end in full, limitless unity in relation to the entire world. And this, despite all the obstacles, is when I discover that all the desires to which I must fully give myself, are opposite to me, hate and reject me. As the Aviut (the thickness of desire) grows, I am shown the distance between reception and bestowal, and then I reveal the entire burden concealed in unity.

And all this is to acquire independence at the height of the Creator.

This is why we need to agree with everything we experience. And even though our nature, the nature of this world, rejects all the forms of the spiritual world, we must agree with this. The spiritual form is opposite to me, I hate it and do not accept it, but this is the way things need to be. I must understand and love it; I must prepare myself for it with the help of the group, the environment. This is exactly where we are going: towards this contradiction, to make it desirable so it would serve as proof of the fact that we are advancing towards the truth.
[72045]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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The Place For Work Is Between The Hearts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Our state is like that of a birth. A birth is a concrete action that either happened or not. However, if I ask this question now of my friends I’ll get all kinds of answers in the full spectrum, as if there are numerous tints of the grey color here. Is this the way it is supposed to be, or is it only one of the two, either black or white?

Answer: There is a very good example for this, the exodus from Egypt. It can be related to a single person who includes all of these qualities within him, since the whole world is inside of him. However it can also be seen as the exodus of many people of all types, amongst which there are men and women, the elderly and the children, infants, people related to the nation of Israel, and the Egyptians, the so-called “mixed multitude.” Everyone is coming out; everyone is running.

In this crowd, there are those who dreamed of this flight for many years and some who are following along with their relatives. There are children and infants who are led out by their parents. There are the elderly who would have no one to take care of them if they stayed. There are those who saw the crowd fleeing and just then decided to join.

But there are those who are going at the head of the throng who are determined to escape, and in front of them all, Moses is leading the way. Meaning that we see that among those who arrive at Mount Sinai are all types of people. And inside of a single person, reaching this state of the first unity above the mountain of hatred between him and his friends, there are also a multitude of desires and thoughts, from the high point in the heart which leads him like the forefather, Moses, and up to the most rough, vain desires.

In the end it’s required of them all, all so different and each one with everything confined inside of his spectrum of desires, thoughts and intentions, it’s necessary for all of them to be ready for the mutual connection as much as we, being below the Machsom, are capable of it. Of course, all of this is happening in a world of deception for the sake of egoism, Lo Lishma, but no more is required of us yet.

It needs to be understood that the spiritual approach is not difficult at all, but very simple. The problem is that we are not directed at the spiritual! I am not directed at unity! If I were able to remain in the aspiration towards unity for a few hours, I would have reached it. However, I don’t want it, and I am spending hours on all other possible things except spirituality, so in the end, life alone is not enough to reach it.

The problem is that we keep forgetting where we need to apply efforts. If you apply effort in the correct place, then it doesn’t matter if you have very little water, but you are using it to water a seed planted into the earth, this seed will shoot sprouts. While if you have a lot of water, but you are pouring all of it out into the desert sand, then nothing comes of it.

That is why the whole problem lies in the quality of intention. While in quantity, we are over-fulfilling it, skirting around, doing something, and we remain satisfied because we have used all of our strength. However, if you were to see how it really is, you would understand that you have not done anything in the right place at all. This is the whole issue. This is what we are working on and everything depends upon this.

Each one is already overfilled with theoretical knowledge, the science, and the articles. What remains is to apply the effort in the right place, only between the hearts, and then we’ll succeed. In our state today we can reach this within a few hours in order to at least touch the spiritual vessel, and then everything will be much easier.
[71836]
From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 4

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Reach The Limit


A person also needs help from Above to reach absolute despair. On our own we are incapable of it. It is a great thing to feel your limit: This is—I, and this is no longer—I. Only the Creator can give this sign, this limit, the boundary between Him and me.

We do different actions with different gimmicks until we suddenly reach despair, seeing the so-called “decree of Heaven” in it, which stands for a sign from Above. Baal HaSulam writes, There is no happier state in a man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own powers…. After all, this state comes to him from the Creator, and there is nothing else that can be done.

We were collecting our little efforts, one at a time, and then we receive them simultaneously, already accumulated into a single whole. We do not put our efforts into some little box, they collect in a common vessel, and their result comes from the Creator. No one knows when it will happen. And this is why the exit out of Egypt is done in a rush and in darkness.

As we try to attain unity, we begin to work on it all together, and then we suddenly discover the power of despair, rejection, and powerlessness. This despair leads us to a demand:  We need help to unite. And we scream. And this scream is followed by help from Above.

Thus, it is impossible to reach the Creator without first becoming despaired inside and making a concerted effort together. After all, the Creator is a force, which is specifically revealed through mutual effort, mutual work. In the individual there is no Creator. The upper Light can only exist in a vessel, corrected to a certain degree, and an individual is a “piece, broken” from the whole.
[71964]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson #6

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Ascent From Point Zero


Today we are writing history with our unity. Everything is happening for the first time. Because until now, generations were spiritually descending: from the revelation of the Creator to Adam through Abraham, Moses, etc, until Rabash. This overall process is called the “descent of the generations.” So for the first time in history, we find ourselves completely separated without any preparation. We begin the ascent from point zero.

The previous stage of development is completed. The descent from above downward, the descent of the worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot, the breaking of the soul of Adam HaRishon—everything has been completed. Baal HaSulam said that we would begin the reverse journey starting in 1995.

Our state does not have examples from the past. There are no analogies to show us the way to act today. In all the past generations, there was a certain degree of illumination; there was perception and a connection with spirituality. But we are completely separated.

But on the other hand, we have a huge support from Above to begin our ascent. The entire system is helping us and relying on us. This is why parts of broken souls, which did not have any connection with the spiritual, started coming closer to this idea over the past several years and started understanding some things. This is because we make our actions correspond to spiritual actions, and thus awaken the Light.

Question: What does our generation need to do?

Answer: Understand the crisis. We are becoming acquainted with it in a spiritual way, asking the question about the meaning of life. But the entire world is experiencing it in a material way: A person is not happy with his life, and this also is a kind of a question about its meaning, but on a different level.

We all begin with this as we see that there is no answer to the crisis neither in the corporeal nor the spiritual plane. In this way, the entire humanity, divided into those directed straight to the Creator (Israel – Yashar Kel), and the nations of the world, must realize itself.

We live in a very special time, and do not understand that the Creator is literally “spoon-feeding” us. He cannot reveal Himself right away because this would destroy the entire work, this would be against Nature, and would disturb the law of balance and similarity of qualities. He will reveal Himself when we raise MAN, an appeal for correction.
[71934]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson #6

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