Question: I can understand and feel what it means to give confidence to my friends. I can understand what it is for the entire group to be confident about the successful outcome of the convention. But it is written in the Shamati article No. 72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light” that I myself must acquire this feeling of safety. Does this refer to the safety of the “I” that exists in all the friends?

Answer: In spirituality there is no reference to “I.” This question does not exist there at all because “I” do not exist separately.

We already know that the Creator created the general desire, the Kli (vessel). This desire has separated into a multitude of pieces during the breaking, and now every one of us, every part of this single desire, only perceives its current life. We don’t have the ability to perceive anything greater.

However, you still desire to perceive a higher degree than the life in this world, in your little piece of the general desire. For this we need to unite and return to the state of a single vessel, as it was before the breaking.

So, there is no notion of “I” in spirituality, in the sense that we imagine it. There is unity in spirituality. When everyone joins it despite his egoism, a 620 times more powerful vessel is formed. Unlike the initial state, every one of us has acquired an egoistic desire, found himself separated from the others, experienced personal hatred towards the common vessel, towards everyone else, and now is working above this egoistic inclination to reject. This is what gives us a much greater power of unity than before.

The spiritual world is perceived in the common, unified vessel, when we glue its broken pieces together again. And we together reveal fulfillment in this corrected vessel. It’s not I who feels the unity, the spiritual world, and the confidence. If this sensation exists, this is no longer “I,” but “we” together. This is the only way to manifest spiritual details of perception, both in regards to the vessels and the Lights.
[62571]
From Preparatory Lesson, The World Arvut Convention 2011

Related Material:
Unshakable Confidence Is One For All
Life Giving Unity
Baby Talk From A Higher Universe

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What stages should a person go through during the convention?

Answer: First of all, it’s necessary to physically include yourself in the mutual field by trying to do what all the others are doing. We should turn off our thinking, put aside all concerns and desires, and simply dive into the surrounding environment.

I don’t want to think about anything! For the next few days I totally disconnect myself from all my usual concerns. After all, I have the right to do so for once in my life! It’s as if I have no worries: I’m being fed, I have a place to sleep, and that’s all I need in the physical world. Everything else I want to do along with others and feel what they feel.

We can ascend only if we apply a great deal of effort and try time and time again to elevate ourselves. It’s very important to make such physical actions where we totally stop thinking of ourselves and only look at others and do what they are doing, like a small child that imitates adults and thereby grows. This is exactly what we should be doing.

All of my friends are the greatest people of the generation and exist in the world of Infinity. This is what Kabbalists teach us, and this is what I discover upon attaining spirituality. Right now I want to connect with them and not be a smart alec so that I don’t allow any criticism or doubt to enter my mind. We must all do this.

We still have time to prepare. We must all come to the opening ceremony with the feeling that we are one person. There will be more people coming, and we have to sweep them up with this thought and this intention so as to absorb them within instead of them overpowering us.

We need this large amount of people. We can’t conduct a convention in a narrow circle of 500 people. This is not enough. We have to sweep up a large number of people because the only way we’ll earn a spiritual revelation is by taking a step towards the whole world.

The people that are expected to join us are not closely connected to us and aren’t necessarily led here by the point in the heart. These people are interested in the topic and they respect and support us. So we have to be the core within this mass of people, just like the world Kli is the core in relation to all of humanity.

This is why in the days before the convention we must obtain maximum unity between us. And later we’ll simply continue to work on that unity. On the first day of the gathering we will begin to work for the public with the unity that we have prepared. Each time we’ll keep them and ourselves in a greater connection.

We are responsible for this unity and we realize this convention. The word “convention” means a gathering, a connection between all of its participants. From this you should understand what we are here to do and try to direct everything inward toward the mutual desires and thoughts.
[62610]
From Preparatory Lesson, The World Arvut Convention 2011

Related Material :
The Return To “Us”
Getting From A “Point” To A Circle
The Convention Starts With Our Demand

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 7
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 8
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Conventions - 1 Comment →

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 4
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 5
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 6
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Conventions - 1 Comment →

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

World Arvut Convention, Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Conventions - 2 Comments →

Filed under: Conventions - No Comments →

Shamati #72: Confidence is the clothing for the Light, called “life.” This is because there is a rule that there is no Light without a Kli (vessel). It follows that the Light, called “Light of life,” cannot clothe, but must dress in some Kli (desire). The Kli where the Light of life is clothed is usually called “confidence.” It means that he sees that he can do every difficult thing.

This means that if we don’t attain the state called confidence, we won’t be able to reveal the upper Light. That’s because the Light is attained and perceived in this vessel of confidence, meaning, we have to be sure that it is in our power to do this and it depends only on us. If this inner sensation arises in us, we will definitely be successful and reveal the Light.

The degree of life is defined by the degree of one’s confidence, and the stronger is the sensation of confidence, the more the Light becomes revealed inside of it. We are in an ocean of infinite Light even now, but due to the lack of confidence, the vessel for the Light’s revelation, we sense ourselves in this miniscule state – in a black central point, giving us the weakest possible sensation of life called “this world.”

If we want to acquire a greater sensation of life in ever-increasing spheres, until the last, infinite, unbounded sphere, this depends only on how sure we will be that we can attain it only inside of our unity.

There cannot be any doubts and lack of confidence, such as thoughts of this not being the right time to do it, that maybe we can do it tomorrow or the next day. The moment we attain this confidence all together, we will immediately break through the Machsom.

Even the sensation of our life here, in this world, also depends on the feeling of confidence. The greater the confidence, the greater the sensation of material life.

The Light and our ego are playing with one another, and we are in the middle, between them. Everything depends only on the level of our confidence: whether we will be able to rise above egoism at every moment and cleave to the Light, aspiring to be equal to it.

This war does not stop for a moment because as soon as we rise above a certain state, a greater egoistic desire is immediately revealed to give us the opportunity to rise above it to a higher level. This is why we need to be doing constant inner work: descents and ascents, alternating non-stop.

We have to understand that all the descents are given to us to overcome them and this way to attain unlimited confidence. And the only solution here is to separate from ourselves and cleave to the group. In it I must find the great force that can swallow me and bring me to the next level, like a mother’s womb, the AHP of the upper one.

To the extent I am able to cleave to this elevator, it will continuously elevate me to higher levels. I just need to cleave to it all the time above my egoism, which will get in my way less and less.

My task is only to rise above reception in bestowal, faith above reason, and this action is only possible in the group. I will continuously try to do this, while my ego will throw me to the side, distracting me with trivial matters, and then with matters that are larger and more serious, until I finally detach from it and will even stop feeling how far I have gotten.

Our entire work comes down to this. And if at every moment I don’t experience myself deeper inside the group, the society, and the common confidence that we acquire together, then I come out of my vessel, our common desire for revealing the spiritual world, and I don’t attain anything. That is how I lose confidence.
Our entire confidence is based on a person cleaving to the group and there finding the force that lets him continuously attain greater spiritual levels.
[62584]
From the preparatory lesson to the Arvut Convention, 12/4/11

Related Material:
One Prayer From One Heart
For Now We Don’t Understand How It Is Possible…
Available Only Now – A Spiritual Loan At Profitable Conditions!

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Unity - 1 Comment →

Preparatory Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Conventions - No Comments →

Convention Preparation
The goal of creation – to delight the creatures, lies in bringing creation, which exists in the quality that is opposite to the Creator, to equivalence or identity with Him because this is the best, perfect state. Therefore, the law of equivalence of form lies at the foundation of the whole process. On one hand, by our nature we are the will to receive, the will to enjoy, and we only analyze what we have inside of us – am I sufficiently fulfilled, do I desire anything more, can I enjoy something else and receive it inside of me? Essentially, this is my entire nature: at every moment I check how else I can improve my state. That is how I was created. I cannot free myself of this and I cannot come out of it since otherwise I won’t be creation.

On the other hand, we have to attain the state that is equal to the Creator. And the state that is similar to Him is opposite to us, meaning when I constantly check how I can benefit my neighbor, what I can take out of myself and give to him. The neighbor is everything that is outside of me. Essentially, only the Creator is outside of me. How can I get to the point where I will always think only about Him? I am incapable of that. My nature is initially such that I don’t feel this at all. Each of us understands that we are incapable of thinking about the good of someone else. In order to perform this revolution inside of us, meaning to make us similar to the Creator, He prepared two means.

First of all, the Creator placed the rudiment of the quality of bestowal inside of us, the “point in the heart,” the spiritual spark that is inside of us even though we do not feel it. We feel an unconscious desire, but we do not feel a real desire to bestow to the neighbor, to the friends, to the Creator, to become similar to Him. Yet this spark does exist.

In truth, it exists in all people in the world. But there are some in whom it is already awakening, and there are others in whom it is not awakening yet. People in whom this spark awakens are called “Isra-El” – “Straight to the Creator,” according to this spark which directs them to spirituality.

But this spark, which is inside of our will to enjoy, is not enough yet. Outside of us there is the upper force, which created us in the will to enjoy with a spiritual spark inside of it. This upper force is in the state of expectation: it is waiting for us to demand for it to influence us. This force is not one tiny spark, but one enormous Light, like billions of sparks.

But since we are in a dual state, like a dipole, combining both the will to enjoy and a spark of bestowal inside of us, we have to prepare to attract the Light to us, to obligate it to influence the spark, to increase it so the tiny spark would ignite into one enormous Light. This is our work.

In order to urge the Light to influence this spark, we have to become similar to the Light according to the same law of equivalence of form and attract it to us. How do I attract it? To the extent of our equivalence of form. How can I become similar to it? That is why besides me, there are many others like me, the group. If on one hand, I try to unite our sparks with them, and on the other – to cancel our desires as much as possible, then it turns out that we become more and more similar by that. We lower our egoistic desires down, while wishing to unite and elevate these sparks. Then, according to the law of equivalence of form, the upper Light becomes closer to us and illuminates more. And when it illuminates more, it raises these sparks, uniting them into one big spark. That is how we start growing closer to the Light, until we begin to reveal it. What does it mean to reveal it? It’s when it influences our sparks and we begin to feel it. Our sparks unite with one another and inside of them we begin to feel the Light, the common, mutual bestowal, the quality of Light, the Creator.

Then we begin to feel how besides our will to enjoy and our tiny spark inside of it, above it there is a quality of common, all-enveloping bestowal, the Creator. And in this sensation, we begin to feel the second force that exists in creation. In reality, this is the primary force that created us.

Each one of us and all of us together become included in this force, which becomes revealed to us. And in it, we already exist, or it exists inside of us, which is the same thing. Then we feel it, and that means we feel the upper world, the spiritual world, our life in the spiritual dimension. And our body exists on the side. It is not even connected to the same desire, like some animal existing next to it. That is how we exist.

Therefore, in all of our actions, it is very important for us to understand that “the Shechina dwells only in a perfect place.” That is, we have to unite, to become similar to the Light by our nature, and to that extent the Light influences us, comes closer to us, and becomes revealed inside of us.

That is why we get together, in as big as quantity and quality as possible, and prepare. It’s all to unite our sparks and inside of them to feel that we really do have a place for the Shechina, for the revelation of Light inside of us. The first revelation means that we pass the Machsom and already exist in the revelation of Light. Let us hope that we will have to actualize this and we really will reach this.
[62504]
From the lesson on 11/11/11 on “Joy”

Related Material:
Evolution Beyond Darwin’s Theory
Tell Us About Spirituality!
I Give By Receiving Everything

Filed under: Conventions, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Convention Preparation
The only thing that will help us is unity. You depend on others and you know it. You know that the mind and the feeling won’t get you anywhere. They will keep changing, inclining in one direction or another, but with no result. You are like a dead body in a society of friends.

This society buries your egoism in the ground and raises your soul upward. So let it do that. Believe us, you really are dead. So give us the chance to take care of you, to bring you back to life.

Here is what Chaim Vital writes in the book, The Gates of Reincarnation: My teacher (the Ari) warned me and all the friends that were with us in the group that we should take upon us the commandment of love for the neighbor as oneself, and to aspire to love for every person from Israel as to oneself. By virtue of this, one’s prayer is accepted, which is gathered from all of Israel and able to perform a correction above. In our love of friends, every person can become included in the friends like an organ in a body. Our teacher warned us about this very much.

If a person understood that he has no other way to go, that he just has to give himself over to society, he would join the friends and would benefit from it. There is no Kabbalist who did not write about this or pass this on to his students. This is the foundation of our Kli.

We are beginning the practical preparation to the Convention. This is an unusual convention. Everyone sees how special it is, what inner and outer preparatory work we have already done. So let us try to spend the last days and hours before the opening in connection, in unity, in understanding that it’s impossible without this.

I advise you to print out all of the excerpts that we used at the Convention in the Arava desert. Let the friends read them and translate them for one another, let them discuss it in their free time so we won’t have a minute free of unity. These words of Kabbalists are wondrous messages of unity and they have great power. So let them be a basis, a foundation of everything we are doing.

I summon you to understand that no one here is exempt from mutual guarantee. Every person is responsible for everyone. Whether he wants it or not, he was brought to the group, he was appointed a messenger and a responsible person. Even if he is out there, in the external world physically, instead of here, this doesn’t matter, he is responsible for everyone.

Therefore, let’s constantly hold on to the unity, in which we attain the Creator. Let’s not leave this goal for a moment. Let’s wait every moment for the upper Light to come, to illuminate our small, flawed desires and unite us. Then it will enter and fill this unity it created, and we will attain the revelation of the Creator to the creation. I am sure that this is exactly where we are headed.

And once I have acquired this above-mentioned clothing, sparks of love promptly begin to shine within me. The heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, the feet dance in a circle, in love and joy together with them, and I transcend my corporeal boundaries. I forget the vast distance between my friends and me, and the outstretched land for many miles will not stand between us.

It is as though my friends are standing right within my heart and see all that is happening there, and I become ashamed of my petty acts against my friends. Then, I simply exit the corporeal vessels and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and I. After that, even the “I” is cancelled and is immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world—only the friends. (Rabash, Letter #8)
[62519]
From the lesson on 12/2/11, Shamati

Related Material:
The Spirit Of Unity Is Knocking At Our Hearts
A Gold Mine Of Feelings
The Force Of Mutual Guarantee For The Convention!

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Unity - No Comments →