Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Let Everyone Into Your Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only thing we need to do is to constantly clear up space inside of our hearts for everyone. My heart is a piece of meat. And I have to find a point inside of it that I could turn into emptiness, that I could create a place from. This is the point from which our universe seems to have developed.

In reality, our universe does not exist and there are no worlds. All of this exists only in our sensation.

Thus, if this emptiness starts expanding inside our heart, that will be the emergence of a new world, similar to how our universe was created in the desire. This is what we have to do.

Let every person feel this point inside of him, inside of his heart, and try to create emptiness around it so everyone would enter there.
From the closing ceremony at the Moscow Convention 6/12/11

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The Need For Unity Is Drawing To A Head

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe theme of our Convention is “Unity – the Future of the World.” I am very moved because after many years of studying Kabbalah, the unity of the world and the need for it are finally starting to become apparent.

Over the course of billions of years of our world’s development, as well as in the process of many events before its conception, everything progressed precisely towards this point—the point of realizing the need for unity. It is only now starting to awaken, to be expressed, and to show its necessity. And you and I are at the center of this realization.

Everything began when the single force of nature, the force of bestowal, or the Creator, which is the same thing, began acting, emanating, and creating matter. First it made the spiritual matter, meaning desire: the desire to be filled, the desire to develop, the desire to feel oneself and everything around.

This desire develops under the influence of the initial force, the force of nature. The phases of its development are called “the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light.”
The entire purpose of developing creation, or desire, lies in making it similar to all of nature, in having it reach wholesome harmony, or in other words, reaching equivalence and adhesion with the Creator because adhesion is attained through equivalence of form. It is necessary for matter, meaning the desire that’s opposite to the Light, opposite to the quality of bestowal, to eventually go through all the phases of its development and to realize that the highest, best state is similarity to the Light, similarity to the perfect nature, harmony with it, and unity with it.

However, in order to achieve this state, it is necessary to first feel that you are totally opposite to it, meaning to experience yourself in a quality that is completely opposite to the Light, to experience egoism, cruelty, the desire to think only about yourself, the sensation of just yourself, the inability to feel someone else or to think about someone else unless it is for your own sake, unless it brings you personal benefit, unless it means using others. That is how qualities that are the most opposite to the Light have to be expressed in creation.

In our world this creation is man, who goes through an enormous number of developmental phases throughout the course of history until he attains the sensation, and most importantly, the realization that he is completely opposite to the force of nature. This is a very difficult and lengthy process. Over hundreds of thousands of years we moved forward, and egoism gradually grew stronger inside of us. Externally we see how man has developed in his social formation until he attained the current state. As a whole, this egoism, this desire, constantly pushed us forward until the present moment.

And now, as of late, we are starting to be convinced that this egoism, this nature we have is actually our enemy, and our only enemy. By separating us from one another, it literally deprives us of the opportunity to exist normally, even on the level of this material world.

We are becoming more and more closed in, cruel, separated, and frightened, and are taking on a defensive stance, thus depriving ourselves of a normal life and losing the meaning of existence. And indeed: Why should we live? Only in order to defend and protect ourselves? Only in order to place ourselves in some kind of boundaries and exist in them for a certain amount of time with a certain level of comfort and safety? And that’s all?

That is how man in this world feels as he becomes crueler and crueler by nature with time. We make him that way. Our egoism pushes us to this.

In the end, all of this is being expressed as a huge crisis. In some countries the crisis is felt more, and in others, less, but it is drawing to a head. No matter how much we conceal it, we cannot do anything about it. It is becoming expressed in the economy, in social structure, in the decrease of the family’s role, and in all of the problems that emerge in our society, such as the crisis of upbringing, drugs, terrorism, and so on.

In all areas of man’s activity he is coming up against numerous crises, but in the end it is all a crisis of our opposition to nature. And naturally, it can only be corrected at this essence.

We cannot correct it in any other way. We see how government leaders are trying, how the authorities are unable to do anything, and even tyrants, who use the money and armies that are at their disposal, are unable to change anything. The world is unrelentlessly moving towards a great rupture. Force and power are still trying to hold the world in the previous boundaries, but are no longer able to do that.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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The Screen To Reveal The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the upcoming conventions, if we wish the Creator to be revealed, what should we be asking for?

Answer: The Creator’s revelation is love and bestowal that unfold between human beings. Within this property, we find its source, the upper force that created us, and feel it inside ourselves.

Hence, the Creator’s name is “Boreh,” meaning “Bo uh Reh” or “come and see,” discover. You discover Him within yourself, in your reformed properties. They serve as a screen, a monitor, where you can find your world.
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From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah 5/29/2011

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Be A Total Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do I need to do in order to be one hundred percent successful at the convention?

Answer: You can be totally successful only by way of thought! “I am a part of this along with the others. I want to unite with them all. I realize that in my bond with the others, within this connection, I will discover all spiritual degrees, worlds, and my spiritual states. If I unify with the others completely, I will come to the total correction or, at least, a partial one on the path (if I haven’t fully connected with others yet).”

But all that has to do with spirituality unfolds in the connection between people. Moreover, this bond must be based on bestowal. This means that it appears in a person only when he or she is tuned into it correctly: myself, the group, and the studies of our properties described in a Kabbalistic book.
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From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah 5/29/2011

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The Formula Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is bestowal?

Answer: Bestowal is called the state when I accept your desires as mine and begin to fulfill them. In other words, my desire exists solely to generate fulfillment for your desire. This means that in relation to you, I perform the action of bestowal, that I love you.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we study that in the entire reality there are only two components: desire and fulfillment. Thus, the still, vegetative, and animate natures are created. Our cells, molecules, atoms, thoughts, and force fields act from the desire (the need for fulfillment) to fulfillment.

This is manifested at different levels: biological, physical, in thoughts and desires. There is nothing in nature apart from deficiency and fulfillment. So, if I turn myself into a device of your fulfillment, this means that I bestow to you.

Thereby, we unite: I connect with you, and you can do the same in relation to me. We build the place between ourselves in which we can reveal the upper Light, the ultimate fulfillment: you from me and me from you. This is called the sensation of spiritual life.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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World Kabbalah Convention In Moscow – 06.12.11

“Unity – the Future of the World,” “Freedom of Will,” Lesson 6
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“Unity – the Future of the World,” Lesson 7
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“Unity – the Future of the World,” Closing Ceremony
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Beware Of The Dog!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Feeling hatred towards others, I feel as if an “animal” is hidden inside me, which is stronger than me. How can I gain power over this “animal”?

Answer: Gaining power over our ego is possible only under one condition: that we see how much we lose because of that “animal” that controls us. We are ruled by our ego, and it does not allow us to achieve an eternal, perfect life in a good, kind world.

If I saw how much my ego steals from me, how much it has taken from me and does not give me, then I would hate it. But I do not hate it and I even love it; I identify myself with it because my entire life is, in fact, to fulfill it. How can I feel that my ego is death for me?

The most important thing that I can do is to enter the group, the environment, so that it raises the importance of spirituality for me, the importance of bestowal and unity with others because thanks to this in particular I reveal life at the human level. If I am impressed by the environment and it can influence me, then I attain enough strength to overcome my ego.

All our work and efforts are necessary to reach the realization of evil, our egoistic desire. Today, it seems useful for me: The more I desire, the more I earn, gain power, or steal. More, more, more…. In our society, those who have a big ego appear to be more successful.

I have to convince myself that obtaining a good life in this world deprives me of a spiritual, beautiful life and lies to me by depicting a good life here, in this world. This is only possible in an environment that can “brainwash me,” influence me, persuade me. The opinion of the environment can work on me so much that I want to rise above the power of my egoism.

Then, I will begin to experience life at a different level which I did not feel before. It happens instantly; there is no transition. I immediately feel that there is life outside of me, not inside me, when I constantly wanted to fill myself as much as possible. On the contrary, I sense life when I exit this “animal” which cannot absorb anything.

By doing this first step, I reveal the upper world right away. What is “the upper world?” The reality where I live now is called “this world.” But the reality which I feel outside of myself, in the connection with my friend, with a fellow human being, is called “the upper world” because it is the human level which is more exalted than the animate one.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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World Kabbalah Convention In Moscow – 06.11.11

“Unity – the Future of the World,” “The Human Soul and Its Correction,” Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“Unity – the Future of the World,” “The Internal Basis of the Group,” Lesson 4
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“Unity – the Future of the World,” “Surety Group,” Lesson 5
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World Kabbalah Convention In Moscow – 06.10.11

“Unity – the Future of the World,” Opening Ceremony
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“Unity – the Future of the World,” “The World as a Unified Force,” Lesson 1
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“Unity – the Future of the World,” Lesson for Women, Lesson 2
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Living By Different Rules

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe wisdom of Kabbalah explains that if we want to return to our root (which is exactly what we aspire to since it’s what is important for us), we have to rise above our universe to the higher dimension, above the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). In other words, we have to perform an action opposite to the breaking of that uniquely created desire: We need to connect with each other again.

Our egoism does not disappear in our connection; rather, we gain the strength to overcome it. Thus, the force of our unity is 620 times greater than it was initially, at the time of our creation, and that is why we feel and understand ourselves, reality, and the Creator the way that they are. This is why we grow in our world and develop from the still to the vegetative, animate, and human levels, where the human level implies similarity to the Creator.

We developed for many years at the human level until our ego became so huge that we could not get along with each other as before. In the previous generations, we were connected with each other. Each felt like he belonged to a family, had a home, parents, children, and grandchildren. He knew that he had relatives and friends who could help him in difficult times. People were attached to their families, and they lived in large families, clans, and tribes.

Today, we quickly become disconnected from our close ones, and our children grow distant from us even faster. The connection between us is lost, and we feel no need for it. Family does not seem something mandatory. It does not matter that we are alone; we feel free that way. Our egoistic desire has grown so much that we do not care about our relatives, and we are hardly interested in our friends.

Before, we used to have a lot of friends. We attended various clubs and met people who had similar interests. Today, one scarcely has a friend. People prefer to be on their own. They are indifferent toward their countries and can move to different places with a light heart. The world has become round and without borders.

Moreover, the development of the ego has brought us to a point where we have lost the natural egoistic connection between us. The ego has prepared us for a state where we can unite by the ties of a new connection which is realized, completed by us so that all the boundaries and natural differences between us that were caused by egoism disappear, and we can ascend to the level of “human,” organized not by the degree of kinship, but according to spiritual affinity.
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From Lesson 2, Convention in Madrid, 6/3/2011