Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Regarding Virtual Conventions And A True Connection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the light of the upcoming Moscow convention, you said that it’s time we got used to virtual congresses and felt an even greater connection sitting behind computer screens. What does it mean?

Answer: Conventions are a leap forth. But in addition to them, we must maintain the connection between us daily and constantly enhance it. Thanks to the conventions, we create impulses to unification, and during the intervals in between it is vital to sustain a permanent connection and strengthen it day by day.

There isn’t another choice; we must reach a “round,” global, integral world. It isn’t mere words. We can’t break the connection after the three days of convention; the connection must underlie the world’s daily agenda. This is what’s required of us.

Hence, we have to cultivate such relations between us that will let us maintain the connection even virtually, without our seeing and hearing one another. That’s why the Internet emerged in the first place: It is meant to help the entire world link in a wholesome interconnection and move on from the corporeal, virtual unity to the spiritual one. And we are to employ this medium.

Therefore, I suggest that our future conventions should be small, for about a thousand or two thousand friends who gather in the same region. And the rest will participate in them virtually, which won’t spoil anything for them at all. On the contrary, everybody lives in one collective state, and the “virtual” participants don’t feel any slightest weakness in uniting with the participants at the physical site.

It will allow us to have many conventions a year; besides, we will be able to maintain an unbreakable link every day of the year. Let’s stop spending much money on two huge conventions a year, after which we still experience a downfall and descend into the previous state. I wish to transfer emphasis from the physical to internal convention, and from the latter to the daily inner interconnection. It is extremely important. Otherwise, we won’t be able to build the place of the Creator’s revelation between us.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 10

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A One-Sided Connection With The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The information that is placed on the Internet is controlled by a small group of people. How will we be able to rise or bypass them in the circulation of true knowledge about the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: We are currently building a portal where we wish to post materials focused on the future of humanity. We wish to express a serious concern about the fate of the world without doing this in a hysterical manner.

It will be a very respectable portal that will concentrate on changes in the world, what actually is happening in it, and all the manifestations of the crisis that is enveloping us. We provide our own explanation to all these occurrences. This portal is owned by us, and no one can do anything with it.

We don’t care about what happens on the Internet: We do not plan to control it or intervene into anything. We shouldn’t come into contact with that crowd or what they do in their market at all.

We need to be an authority in the world regarding issues about the future, and in this respect no one can be close to us. After all, no one has clear, serious, correct, and authentic knowledge about the future of the world: How to come out of the crisis in education, family relationships, finance, and so on.

In reality, there is one reason for all of these problems: It is the lack of connection between people and because of that, these problems only get worse. We need to bring the world to this knowledge gradually, not all at once, with the help of scientific research in different fields and the explanations of the wisdom of Kabbalah, logically, seriously, and businesslike.

And we shouldn’t even think about taking part in different discussions that arise on the Internet and are controlled by various organizations. That does not pertain to us.

My advise: Do not get involved in conversations with the world because there is no one to talk to there. Treat the world in a one-sided manner, filling it with our knowledge in such a way that it can be picked up, and do not receive anything in response—nothing!

After all, people do not know what to say, their opinion changes constantly, and it’s not worthwhile to get intermixed with them at all. Act like you would with little children, only from one side. We need to give them our science and not receive their knowledge from them, which has nothing authentic in it. They themselves don’t know what is happening to them.

And in regard to the Internet, it is clear: We should understand that it is a mechanism of lies that is used by different groups that have an interest in its development, meaning the government, intelligence forces, and marketing. All the social and information networks are controlled and used by agencies that study us for a more sophisticated exploitation in the long run.

From the moment that the Internet came about, all the interested parties, starting from the KGB to the FBI and others, immediately knew what to do with it: collect information about each of us and all of us together. Such is the Internet and its system of control. And we should not be involved in this; let them do whatever they wish.

It still will be revealed that the Internet is just a net of spies on a general and personal level. Practically everyone is being spied upon and everything is known about everyone. This is of no great difficulty since we all are on the web. There are records on what you bought, who you wrote to, what you receive, what you are interested in, and what pages you visited. Special systems check and examine this data, and this constitutes the main job of big informational networks that are active on the Internet.

By the way, I received a joke on this topic:

Letter from a company that works with discount cards:

Dear Mister Jones,

We noticed that you have not bought any condoms in SpiffyMart for a while (the last time was 8 weeks ago). In addition, you stopped buying feminine hygiene products but started buying more frozen pizza and fast food dinners.

This goes to show that Miss Sanders has left you. (Maybe this is for the best since she used to buy really cheap shampoos that obviously failed to make her more attractive).

The post office database confirms that she has changed her address. Please accept our condolences. We suspect that the hot porn video will help you deal with this stress.

If you feel lonely, please look through our catalogue. Buy videos immediately and we will add one video free of charge!

Sincerely yours,
Sales Manager

P.S. Remember that blonde you treated to a double martini in the O’Dougles bar? Forget about her! She has been infected with something for many months now, and she is a regular customer at Acme Pharmacy. (Her home computer is on the same network as ours). You never know what you might catch from her. Meanwhile, our videos are completely safe.

However, this does not matter to us, let them use each other. We need to be represented in the most serious manner so that people will see that only we have the answer about the future of the world.
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From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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There Should Be No Downfalls!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How, after the convention is over, can we keep ourselves in the state that we achieved there? After all, there usually comes a downfall?

Answer: We cannot afford it, similarly to how a mother who has a little baby on her hands cannot show that she is sick. There are situations when necessity puts everything else in the background. And only if a mother is on her deathbed does someone else take care of a baby.

In our case, we don’t have time for rest, lofty phrases, and downfalls. The world around us is developing very quickly, while we lag behind and thus must get abreast of its speed. We will feel more and more how all bad things happening in the world are related to us since we are late with our correction.

This is why I don’t even let the thoughts about a post-convention downfall cross my mind: It just can’t happen! Besides, until the summer our schedule is packed with important events: conventions in Italy, Spain, and Moscow. We all have to unite and prepare for them. This is why we don’t have any breaks, everything is compressed in time. And this is good because it corresponds to the speed of changes taking place in the world.
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From the Talk about the Convention 3/25/2011

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There Shouldn’t Be Any Descents!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: After the WE! Convention how can we maintain ourselves in the same state that we achieved there, since usually a descent always comes afterward?

Answer: We cannot allow ourselves to get into a descent, similar to how a mother cannot say she is sick when she has a baby in her arms. There are situations in life where necessity eclipses everything. Only if the mother is on her death-bed should someone else take care of her baby.

Likewise, in our case we do not have time to take a break, to engage in idle talk, or to get into descents. The world around us is developing very quickly and we are falling behind, but we are obligated to walk along at its rate.

More and more we are starting to feel just how much all of the bad things happening in the world are connected to us because we are falling behind with our correction. Therefore, I don’t even allow myself to have thoughts about a descent after the convention. This is impossible!

Besides, until the summer we will still go through a row of important events, including conventions in Italy, Spain, and Moscow. We have to unite all together and prepare for them. Therefore, we don’t have any breaks to take since everything is very compressed in time. And that’s a good thing because it corresponds to the speed at which changes are happening in the world.
From the lesson on 3/25/11

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The Key Is To Think About Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I learn to place more importance on the intention rather than the understanding of the text when we study the Kabbalistic sources in the group or when I read them alone?

Answer: When I read alone, I also have to think that we all are connected together. It is as though I plunge into our collective desire which connects us into one, where we are united all together even though we don’t feel it.

I try to be on the same level. Being together with everyone inside the system that connects us all, where we all share the same desire and energy, I wish to sense that there are no differences between me and the others.

Then, when reading the text, I try to penetrate into its essence as much as possible and, most importantly, not to disconnect from the inner connection between us. If I need to give 99% of my strength to the thoughts about our connection, I have to do that. Then I use only 1% for understanding what I read. Sometimes I don’t even know what I am reading about: So big are the distractions that come to me.

However, I should not worry about the fact that later on I won’t be able to tell what I just read. The key is to wish to connect with everyone when my eyes follow the letters. This is enough for the text to influence me.

I specifically want to emphasize that first of all you have to think about the connection between us, and only then you may read and understand the text as much as you are able to.
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From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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A Book Versus A Computer Screen

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does it make a difference in a person’s correction process whether he reads Kabbalistic sources from a book or from a computer screen?

Answer: When I’m talking about something, in my mind I picture the source of my words: a book or Rabash’s words. I never had this question because at that time I couldn’t have had it; therefore, I don’t have a clear answer. But in my opinion, there is no difference.

There are people who are used to reading a written text, and there are those who have become used to reading from a computer screen. I open the books only during the lessons. All of our books can be found and downloaded from our website. One can accommodate his or her needs: make notes, change the font size, and so on. Yet, it’s still important to open up a printed book.

I think that all our books should be a part of every friend’s home library. After all, a book is more than just a collection of printed pages. It is a reflection of a spiritual object, a certain idea that contains a deep inner meaning.

A book’s prototype and its predecessor is a scroll (Megillah), from the word “Gilui,” meaning revelation. Try reading from a book and from the screen: You will sense a greater depth in the way you relate to the written pages.

During our lessons, when millions of people are studying together, I would like all of us to read from the books and to see each other on the computer screen.
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From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Like Game, Like Development

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is our intention while reading The Zohar different from the intention to win a lottery? Isn’t it egoistic in both cases?

Answer: A little child playing with his toys doesn’t know what he is really doing. He breaks the toys apart, puts them back together, spoils them, and in the meantime learns, grows, and gains wisdom. Had he not been given the games that develop him, had he lived in the forest, he would have grown up as an animal.

It’s amazing how much wisdom we put into toys, constantly improving them and adapting them to each age group, to enable a newborn person to become, within a few short years, a part of the modern world!

Games are a very serious engagement, and all of our development happens through them. Playing a game means that I am trying to reach a higher state than my present one. That degree is unknown to me, but I am aspiring to it. Game means development, it’s just that the word “game” misleads us.

We are in the same situation. If we are occupied with something serious but don’t understand that future state, it’s called a game. The only question is whether our game has the developmental power or not? If I play with animals in the forest, it doesn’t bring the Light that Reforms; there is no developmental impact. That means that I will stay on the level of a beast because such is my environment.

But if, with the help of the Surrounding Light that shines to me while reading The Zohar, I make the environment of Rabbi Shimon part of my own, I associate myself with a higher degree. Then I progress to the degree of Human.
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From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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There’s No Time To Be Depressed!

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe convention in America has just ended and now we must already start preparing for the next convention which will be held in Moscow in the summer. We do not have time to get depressed and later think about how to come out of the descent. And we have no right to do this.

Suppose I caught the flu, but I have a baby at home who is also sick. What will I think about: my own illness or the baby’s? Obviously, I will do everything I can to make him get better.

And we are in the same situation! We are facing a more serious problem now, so can we really allow ourselves to get depressed? There is no time for that. Only two months are left to prepare! Afterward, time will become compressed even more and we have to prepare for this right now. Period!

But here you are, telling me that today you are experiencing some kind of depression, as if you’re in a fog. What are you talking about?! We don’t even have a moment to cool down. Right after the convention, as I was traveling from New York to Toronto, I already started thinking about the next one.

Our work is simple: to strengthen the connection between us until its inner content, our mutual bestowal to one another becomes identical to bestowal to the Creator, completely equivalent to it and equal to it in size and quality.
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From the lesson on 4/8/11, “Preface to Ptiha”

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A Place You Won’t Find On The Map

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe worldwide WE! Convention that was held in New Jersey was the first convention where we already felt that it doesn’t matter where we are. People felt the same thing no matter where they were.

And it wasn’t because we learned to do this in some way, but because we ascended above the net of our material, virtual connection, and through the virtuality that connects us, above it, we started feeling the spiritual net of connection.

Now we continue this convention further from the same degree that we attained. We attach all the difficulties and problems that become revealed to us to the same ascent. There cannot be an ascent without difficulties because it is always difficult to ascend, just like climbing up a mountain. That is why we are now revealing various problems, depression, confusion, various questions that demand to be resolved, and work among us that has to rise to a qualitatively new level.

We are about to have a large convention in Moscow, and before that two meetings with our groups in Italy and Spain. It is necessary to prepare for this convention. Otherwise, why have it at all? We have to develop a great, powerful desire and at the next convention to already see ourselves on a completely different qualitative level compared to the previous.

What we attained at the convention in America is good. But the next convention has to give us the sensation that we are in one place, rather than in different places in our sensation. This is our goal.

At the previous convention we sat by our computer screens, slightly ascending above this virtual connection. Almost all of us felt how in every corner of the world, at all the mirror conventions, people had the same feeling of joy and inspiration, and the same thoughts. But nevertheless, people felt that they were in different places—in Israel, in New Jersey, in Toronto, in Moscow, in Sao-Paulo, and other cities and countries, as if they were all together.

Now we have to attain the sensation that we aren’t located in different places, but in one spiritual space, where we are connected together. We have to turn off the “as if,” the virtual illusion, and attain the state of being all together. There are no boundaries or distances for sensations and this is what we have to achieve.

This is our goal at the next convention: We have to completely separate from the geographic locations and from the virtual connection. True, all of this does exist. But above all of this, we will very quickly attain the sensation that we are in one spiritual place, rather than in any material location. This is what we should attain at the next convention.

And now we have to work on this. If this is the goal we have placed before us, then we must form a common desire, the need to attain it. We have to talk about this, work in this direction, and maybe write several songs and organize several events and friends’ assemblies.

Everything has to be done for the sake of this goal: to be in one place, meaning in one desire, because “place” in spirituality means “desire.” This is already called “as one man with one heart.” This is what we have to reach, and it happens gradually, step by step, from one convention to the next. This is the goal.
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From the lesson on 4/8/11, “Preface to Pticha”

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A Portion Of The Surrounding Light In This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is written in one of the books that there are spiritual objects. What are they?

Answer: In our world there is nothing that would connect us with spirituality besides special books. These books carry spiritual significance because they really speak of spirituality. Reading them, a person attracts spirituality to himself or herself.

It is most advantageous to read these books in the group when everyone gathers together with the intention and attracts the Surrounding Light. Besides the environment, meaning the group and the books, there is nothing in our world.

I highly recommend that you always be with a book wherever you are. If you have a few free minutes, short breaks at work, open a book and read a short excerpt. Little by little you will start noticing that you are drawn to it more, advance more, and that all your thoughts are changing. Start getting used to it.

I grew at Rabash’s very simply: There weren’t any computers back then, and I always had a book in my hands. Wherever I went, I had a book with me. This is how I re-read all the books many times. I even used to take The Study of the Ten Sefirot with me, a book that is hard to read in the middle of the street. But it contains a section with questions and answers, and I read them. I also read The Book of Zohar and different articles.

Today we have a wealth of books. I think that everyone should have them at home. Each month you can read a different book, not from cover to cover, but wherever you open it. This is what Rabash taught me to do.

During our walks, if he got tired, we used to sit for a few minutes on a bench. I always had a book with me. He would open it at random and start to read. After a few lines, he would close the book and continue the walk. And that’s how it was all the time!

Do it: Get a portion of the Surrounding Light for half an hour or an hour, and then do it again and again. A book has to be in your hands. This is why I’m for publishing them in a pocket-sized format.
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From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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