Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

The Light Is The Answer

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can you explain this phenomenon that urgent questions that arise today are answered by you tomorrow?

Answer: It is a very good question! I often hear about this from my students. They say that perhaps I know, that I intentionally ask someone a question and give him an answer the next day, or someone asks today and I “catch” his or her questions, and the like.

It is nothing like that. It is very simple: A question emerges in you, a desire to be filled with some information, some sensation. You become included in the group, in the lesson, and get an answer or fulfillment. In the same way, you can take my lesson from a month ago and see that I answered your question. This is only because a question has emerged in you—only because of this.

The Light is called the answer; it is all around us in unlimited quantities. Even now, we are in the world of Infinity, but we only feel its smallest, darkest part. There are many concealments around us, 125 curtains of concealment. Thus, we sense only our world.

Once a person has a desire for a more exalted state directed not inside himself but outside, he immediately begins to discover new questions and to get answers. It all depends on desire; there is nothing else.

The Light around us is at absolute rest, and you attain it. What we lack is desire. Thus, if I connect with the group, if I try to connect with the friends, I perceive their desires. Then, I acquire a larger vessel, a greater opportunity for fulfillment.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the main directive of Kabbalah. This is the key tool for receiving the Light. What does “love your neighbor as yourself” mean? It means that you need to attach his desires to yourself. Then, you will have at least twice as much. In reality, it is not even twice, but multiplied by the resistance of your egoism. You will have a huge desire.

While you are connecting your friend to yourself as yourself, you have to rework all your egoism from reception, from rejection, into bestowal. You form a massive vessel. The Light will fill it right away, and you will reach spiritual attainment.

So, if I ask a question today, I can get an answer today and tomorrow; it does not matter when. Usually, it happens during the lesson when you are included in the collective desire and in the collective Light which thereby manifests around you, in the so-called Surrounding Light.
[45383]
From the 3rd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/11/11

Related Material:
The Source Of All Questions
Anyone Who Asks A Question Will Receive An Answer
Only The Light Provides All The Answers

The Right Stimulus

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe science of Kabbalah has an interesting section about the way we perceive the universe, about how man attains the world in which he lives. Why do we feel the world precisely in this way? Is our world really the way we perceive it to be, or is it completely different? In reality, after it passes through our five senses, it acquires a specific form in our perception. We observe precisely this picture, rather than having a direct, objective perception of the actual world.

Today scientists research how the world is seen by butterflies, bees, snakes, and dogs. Every creature sees it in its own way, in different ranges, through a schema of color or scent, and so on. Every creature has its own kind of orientation in the world and sees its own picture, which differs from what others see.

So why is the picture precisely this way in our eyes? And what is it really like from the objective point of view? Can we even attain a truly objective worldview? This is what the section of Kabbalah called “Perception of Reality” talks about.

However, the most important part of Kabbalah is not the descent from above downwards from the world of Infinity into our world, but what happens afterwards. The most important thing for us is the Machsom and the subsequent path upwards. This is what we are now facing, what we now have to go through. We have to go through it in practice, not in theory, and we have to go through this path all together.

We have to implement this as fast as possible so the negative force of development won’t pressure us from behind, giving us a negative stimulus. In ancient Rome, Stimulus meant a sharp stick that was used to prick donkeys so they would move forward. Thus, it’s important for us not to feel this stimulus on our flesh, but to aspire forward ourselves, with the help of the positive force that is given to us for now.

This is essentially the reason we have gathered together. We can get together and get organized, and we can start feeling each other internally, even without physical contact. Let’s feel that by uniting with one another we become similar to the common, global nature. Then, inside of our unity, we will reveal the common field and will feel that we are rising slightly higher. This is realistic and I hope that you and I will do it.
[45526]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
Rising Above All The Borders That Separate Us
The Need For Unity Is Drawing To A Head
When The Crisis Becomes Unbearable

The World Is Ready To Hear

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalah is the method that talks about the need to unite with each other according to the plan of Nature, the single force which controls the entire universe, all of us, all of creation. Since the days of ancient Babylon, this science has been hidden from humanity. Kabbalah only states that this teaching would be passed through a tiny “stream” from teacher to disciple for thousands of years, from ancient Babylon to the present time, until our world becomes a modern Babylon, meaning the world turns into one whole with complete interconnection regardless of borders, countries, continents, nations, races, groups, and the religions that have emerged over the course of history. Our interdependence will become so strong that it will eliminate all these barriers.

On the other hand, our egoism will remain and continue to develop. Because of this, we will hate each other even more. We will repel each other automatically; we will think only of ourselves subconsciously and instinctively. We won’t consider the others and will only use them maximally for our own profit. This will be our nature for 3700 years, Kabbalistic sources said.

We will come to enormous egoism, and it will be natural for us. We will not even realize that it is special, but only that this is us and this the manner of our life. Nonetheless, this egoism, together with our extensive integral connection and the communication that we have developed between ourselves, will eventually turn us into Babylon again.

Besides that, during the last stage of development when this huge egoistic society becomes global, we will practically deplete all the natural resources and sources of: energy, oil, coal, gas, water, minerals, and metals. Everything is coming to an end. Even if we’d like to grow our egoistic potential, it won’t be possible.

The consumer society that developed during the 20th century has exhausted itself, emptying the Earth of all resources, and as a result, we cannot continue in this life even physically. We have reached such a confrontation with each other and the environment that it forces us to do something.

Our society will become different—uncontrollable. Recently we see revolutions taking place in different countries; we see how communication and connection between people urges them to demand social change. However, we still do not understand how or why this happens: Today it is there, tomorrow it may happen here or elsewhere. We do not see where any of this leads.

In this state of confusion, not being able to understand the next stage, we see the science of Kabbalah being revealed to the world again. I remember when I studied with my teacher, we used to travel to special, Kabbalistic places and sit there together, across from each other. During those evenings and nights, he tried to tell me that the time would come when Kabbalah would be revealed.

What does “revealed” mean? “Revealed” means that it is not you who starts talking about it, but people who want to hear start coming. It depends not on you, but on the ones who will listen.

We see that this time has come because there are plenty of people from different countries, on different continents, in various languages, who want to hear what nature, the Creator, demands from us. They want to know what we should resemble, how we should change ourselves, on what level to rise, how to enter an entirely different dimension, how to perceive the general level of nature, eternity, and perfection, and to feel this here and now in our world. It is said in the science of Kabbalah that such people would appear at the end of the 20th century.

I did not really believe it: I did not see these conditions. However, at the end of the last century, thousands of people became interested in Kabbalah, subconsciously and instinctively sensing this urge thanks to their desires which had developed and reached maturity. In the next stage, a new dimension is conceived in this finally ripened egoistic desire.
[45317]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
It’s Time To Start Taking Care Of The World
The Need For Unity Is Drawing To A Head
The Worlds Between Us

The Babylonian Divorce

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe do not have the slightest idea about the future world order because we have entered a system of forces which has never before manifested in our world. As nature, the Creator, approaches us, it becomes outlined more and more clearly. Thus, we must begin to reveal the upper world, meaning the system of governance by the upper force, the Light.

As this external force approaches us, as it shines on us, our society, and the world more perceptibly, more intensely, we sense our oppositeness to this force. We don’t feel the force itself, but sense our inability to settle down even a little bit.

The world has become unpredictable. People are engaged in fortune telling and even believe in miracles. How can it happen in our enlightened age? How can we suddenly begin to believe in it after the 20th century? Every year and sometimes a few times a year, we have all kinds of doomsday dates and other apocalyptic events.

In addition, we find ourselves in the rigid embrace of nature which unexpectedly generates crises of tsunami, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, and so on. Gradually, everything is going out of balance, out of that delicate equilibrium in which we were. That’s because we are going through a turning point. We crossed this turning point once before on a smaller social scale in ancient Babylon. The entirety of humankind was concentrated there, and even then, it discovered that it was a small, closed society.

Today, even though there are seven billion of us, we are a closed society. We suddenly “short-circuited” together; we found ourselves dependent on each other. On the other hand, we are like spouses before a divorce. We hate each other although we are still in one apartment. We should move out, we cannot be together, but common ties hold us together. This is the “shared apartment” that we find ourselves in today on Earth.

Once before, this became evident in a small territory, in Mesopotamia 3700 years ago. Then, for the first time, people began to seek out what they could do about it. On one hand, they were in the same place and in complete, total interdependence. On the other, they hated each other and strove to be as far away as possible from each other. Two opposite forces, two of the hardest tendencies were tearing the society apart. Then, in fact, two methods were suggested.

The first method was the correction of their nature. “Let us correct the egoism that separates, distances, and alienates us from each other. Then, we would win. We would become a single entity in mutual support. We would have enormous power, and we really would erect a “tower up to heaven,” the tower of mutual love, cooperation, and unity, the positive force.

Thus, they would become equal to nature because everything in nature is interconnected. All its levels—the inanimate, vegetative, and animate—always act in mutual harmony, and only a human with his egoism feels himself above nature, believing that he can do whatever he pleases. However, if he understands the laws of nature and looks for correspondence with it, for a harmonious relationship, then he would sense all of its capacity and power. He would understand and realize its purpose, its essence.

This is what was suggested by the adepts of human correction, but, unfortunately, humanity (around three million people living between the Tigris and Euphrates) chose a different path. Like spouses after a failed marriage, they decided that it would be better for them to “move out,” divide their shared apartment, and break the contract. Thus, people dispersed around the world.

Many ancient sources narrated this story. From those times we have the book on Kabbalah called The Book of Creation. We have it in our free archive, in the Russian language as well.

The book called The Great Commentary appeared after that. It also describes the events that happened in ancient Babylon and how people could not solve the problem of unity. To do this, they had to work on their egoism, to rise above it by means of a special method, and that required much more internal, moral effort than simply to physically separate from each other and do whatever everybody wanted, each in his own corner.

Josephus Flavius describes where people went, to which places. Later, all the beliefs and religions were originated by them, everything based on egoism, everything that egoism supports.
[45322]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
The Need For Unity Is Drawing To A Head
Correction Begins With “Babylon”
Religious Resistance To Kabbalah

Live News: Thirteen Minutes About The Most Important Thing

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe crisis that has enveloped the world was very obvious at the recent conventions we held, including the one in Italy three weeks ago and especially  the one in Madrid, Spain a week ago. There the crisis is very apparent. The masses are in disarray, and the rate of unemployment among young people is 40%. And things only get worse every day. There are demonstrations and protestors holding sit-ins on the streets, and more.

I deliberately walked around the streets there and talked to people. They don’t know what to do and are holding protests in front of government buildings. But the government also doesn’t know what to do. Everyone is confused and no one is guilty. And it’s all because we are finding ourselves facing nature’s challenge.

Work places cannot be created out of empty space. And what for? By doing that we would only exhaust the remaining natural resources even faster, ruin the soil, and pollute the environment even more. Our water and air resources will dwindle even faster. So why should we stimulate the deteriorating economy? Just to give people work? With these kinds of consequences, it’s better not to give it to them!

In Spain I appeared on the most popular TV channel during prime time. Instead of speaking for just a few minutes, which was planned according to the program, the interview lasted thirteen minutes. Can you imagine—thirteen minutes on the morning news, among reports about the most important current events! They just couldn’t put an end to the interview.

My suggestion was simple and came down to one piece of practical advice: We have to sit people down to study. They should be paid unemployment benefits (which will also be the most effective money-saving strategy) and they should be taught about what kind of world we are living in, what exists in front of us, and what kind of challenge nature is throwing at us.

This is not someone’s whim or the interests of a certain party or government leaders. This is none other than nature, which is challenging us. And the challenge is for us to change. We do not have to change anything besides ourselves.

We have to become integral and global, in conformity to the current crisis. After all, the crisis is the sensation of one’s lack of conformity with the surrounding nature. Therefore, if we correct ourselves this way, everything will become balanced out and will reach harmony. This is what people should be taught.

The interview received a widespread positive response throughout all of Spain, as well as Latin American and North America, and that’s because it really is the only sensible way to come out of the situation that has formed. And Spain is not alone. Greece, Iceland, Italy and others are in a similar situation, and there are many other countries gradually entering this crisis. And in other places the crisis is coming in different ways.

That is how nature places a clear task before us: We have to change. We have to be integral with nature just like everything else it contains—the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Man should not think that he is above nature and that he can do anything he wishes. His most important task is to consciously become an integral part of the whole.

By becoming an integral part of nature, he begins to understand what it is, and suddenly discovers new depths in it: the worlds of Assiya, Beria, Yetzira, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the world of Infinity. He no longer obstructs himself from nature with his egoism, but starts to feel nature as transparent. He finally understands and becomes aware of the forces that control everything, including himself.

This is the task we are facing today. Therefore, if we desire it and use the force of aspiration forward, which exists in many people in the world, then we really will aspire to self-correction, to the world’s revelation, to exiting from the state of dreaming, from unconsciousness. Then we will attain total equality with nature, the Creator’s level.
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
The World Is Ready To Hear
Interview For The EFE News Agency
Interviews In Spain

From Separation To Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanHuman society is divided into two parts. People whose point in the heart has awakened comprise a small part of humanity; this is us. The rest of the people do not have the point in the heart, yet a powerful egoistic desire is concentrated namely in them.

Two forces, positive and negative, act in us. We move forward by creating a connection between our ego and the desire to attain the spiritual world, which we develop through the study and forces received from the environment. The connection built by combining these two forces is called the middle line.

The rest of the people, as the science of Kabbalah explains, gradually join us, feeling that there is no alternative: Their egoism, demanding fulfillment all the time, will suffer. Over the course of human development man’s egoism was constantly growing and striving to fill itself as much as possible. Today, when the human ego has lost hope to obtain fulfillment, it faces a crisis.

This encourages people to draw closer to us, although they do not know to whom and how. To make their path easier, we have to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah and explain that there is a method of correcting the crisis. When they join us, together we will start working in the middle line and thus reach the world of Infinity.

What will we win as a result? We will reach eternity and perfection. We will rise above our reality, above the point of the creation of our Universe and our entire world—to the upper reality.

Nowadays, the point in the heart awakens in many people: There are millions of them already. And the people whose point in the heart has not been revealed yet feel the crisis in addition to egoism. They sense that they lack the positive force without which they cannot live. They know that they have to correct the crisis, they feel that the solution is hidden in unity, but do not understand how to realize it.

In a global and integral world, everything has to be unified; nature demonstrates this to us. Today, it shows that we have to reach the world of Infinity, that we are one whole. This is precisely what the crisis covertly points and directs us to.

In people who should lead humanity to this goal, the crisis reveals the point in the heart, a positive force, which they can obtain from the group and studying. With its help, they can move towards the world of Infinity independently. And those whom the crisis does not give the force of unification but who feel that they lack this force will gradually get explanations from those in whom the point in the heart has awakened, will join them, and together with them will aim for the goal.
[45051]
From Lesson 2, Convention in Spain, 6/4/2011

Related Material:
Know The Secret Of Life
The Decline Of Egoistic Development
The Exit From The Labyrinth Of Suffering

The Key To Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can you describe in more detail the right direction that is mentioned in the verse, “If the desire is directed correctly, this is the key to success”?

Answer: A person in our world is always in motion. At every moment we desire something, are directed somewhere, and are doing something.

If my direction at every moment of my existence corresponds to the motion of nature, if I don’t digress to the side but move in exactly the same direction, without any angular transgression, then my motion is optimal and I attain the goal to the maximum and in the best possible way.

Therefore, I must constantly control myself by checking: Am I moving correctly in my thoughts, desires, and actions, according to the direction that the upper force, nature, desires for me to move in? This is the key to success.
[45374]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention, 6/10/11

Related Material:
Decoding Each Moment
A Tower In The Sky
The Compass Pointing To The Creator

The Unity Of The World Lies In Harmony Between Men And Women

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe should never perceive the relationship between men and women as antagonistic. On the contrary, we have to see each other as help. If we are talking about the unity of the world, then first of all this is the mutual support of its two parts—male and female.

These parts come from the common root of creation: the Creator or Light, and the desire or the vessel filled with Light. In addition, this vessel goes through all sorts of forms as it changes. And inside of this vessel, both of us— the male and the female parts—have to work together integrally, like in an ideal family.

The common, collective image of the man has to work together with the common, collective image of the woman. They must work together conjointly, mutually, and clearly, each understanding the nature of both of us. A man understands himself and the female nature, while a woman understand herself and the male nature, and together we act sensibly and wisely, as educated, serious adults who aspire toward a common goal.

The goal is attained through the connection between us. It is written, “Man and woman, and the Creator between them.” That is to say, the Creator’s revelation takes place precisely in the right connection between them, on the screen that appears between the Light and the desire. That is how we must complete one another, mutually and constantly. There is no part, no tiny detail, not one phenomenon in nature, in our relationships, in our world and the spiritual worlds, that does not have mutual supplementation, unification, and adhesion of the male and female parts.

In our world this is not apparent at all. We do not even imagine this mutual supplementation, unification, and adhesion. But in the spiritual world this is a necessary condition. And depending on what levels we are on, these levels are determined precisely by the mutual supplementation and unification, until we unite together.

Therefore, the right understanding of our mutual work is the most important condition of our success. I would say that there is no problem that could be solved separately by men or by women. They are always solved one through the other, meaning that women’s problems are solved through men, and men’s problems are solved through women. This lack of understanding, the belief that it is possible to exist separately, “What do I care about them!” (usually, this is how men feel about women), and “We will solve everything on our own and will do everything ourselves!” This attitude that men tend to have is completely incorrect. And naturally, on the part of women it is also incorrect to think that “Men will do something, will solve everything, and everything will be OK, and we will receive something by being next to them.”

Initially, from the very first step, there has to be clear, inner contact. It shouldn’t be external, physical, visual, or even verbal, but precisely inner contact, which occurs through the upper force, through the next level, instead of directly between us. Then this upper degree will be expressed inside of this unity. It’s like a minus and a plus, and some kind of resistor or device between them that starts working precisely in this way, by virtue of the poles that are connected to it.
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
Different in Corporeality, But Equal in Spirituality
Unify To Give Birth To The Creator
The Creator Unites Spouses

Fragmented Perception

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalah explains that in the beginning only desire was created, and it was filled with pleasure, the Light. Then, to make the foundation for the future human, this desire was broken into pieces. It remained the same desire but was shattered into numerous fragments, not resembling each other at all. These parts are completely different and do not perceive themselves as being together, do not feel each other. What one wants is not understandable to the other.

The first state is called “the world of Infinity” (∞), and the second, “the breaking of the vessels.” As a result, we have seven billion scattered, broken pieces. On the drawing, they are close together, but in reality, they are internally divided, separated by such walls that they cannot tolerate each other. Everyone feels only oneself, thinks only about oneself, and nobody remembers that once they were one single desire. These are us in our world, in division, to which we were intentionally brought.

The vessels that used to be one whole are completely alienated from each other; they do not even touch each other in their sensations. One of them is me, and the other is you. And if we want to form a soul between us (it is built exactly between us), we must create resistance (R) in the middle.

Why is it needed? The fact is that everybody wants to enjoy but just for himself, nobody thinks about others, and rejection reigns between us. But if we begin to extend the threads of unity to each other, if at least we do not wish evil to each other, then we will rise from our egoistic degree to that of Bina, where I will no longer want to hurt you. This is already the neutralization of egoism.

If I also wish to bring you good that you anticipate in accordance to your ego, then I begin to work on your ego in order to fulfill it. This is the degree of Keter, the degree of love.

This is the process we have to go through, rising first from the degree of egoism to the degree of Bina, in order not to bring the other harm, and then onto the degree of love.
[45193]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

Related Material:
The Strength Of Love Is In Resisting Hatred
Help Me Wake Up From This Dream
A Rock Separated From The Mountain

We Do Not Yet Exist

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can the method of Kabbalah be put into practice and run as a lab experiment? After all, Kabbalah is a purely practical science; it doesn’t philosophize, nor does it tell us how many angels govern the heavens and where a person goes after he or she dies. No, a person receives a chance to reveal his next state of existence here and now.

How do we achieve it? How do we find equilibrium between the forces of reception and bestowal in order to uncover the upper world, spiritual life, our soul? We have an opportunity to put it into practice. Even if I have only one friend, together we can construct a system of mutual connection between us that will allow us to attain the human degree, which is higher than the animate level of development at which I presently exist.

What makes me feel alive today? I was born from a mother of an animate degree as well, and I was raised in the “animate setting.” As a baby, I suckled milk; then I started to walk, grew in size, and stepped into the world. What are the criteria of human, not animate, growth?

When my friend and I, despite our egoism that pushes us apart, rise above it, the level we pass through while doing so is regarded as the Machsom (Hebrew for “barrier”), which enables me to stop thinking about and be free from myself. This is when I stop being a slave to my desires who keep chasing the bait, unable to resist.

This ascent is regarded as “spiritual birth.” It is then followed by the periods of nurturing, childhood, and maturity, all of which are stages of spiritual growth. Today we view ourselves as mature, important, and “right,” but such a view is purely corporeal. If we look through the glasses that filter all but the spiritual picture, it would look blank. Spiritually, we don’t yet exist. We are yet to enter the stage of spiritual conception and be born into the spiritual world.
[45191]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

Related Material:
To Be Born And Grow Up In The Group
A Child Looking For His Spiritual Parents
Looking For My Brothers….