Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Revealing The Spiritual Dimension

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe right intention is the most important thing we need while reading The Book of Zohar. If a person leaves the intention, then the book does not work on him. There are many sayings and Kabbalistic articles on this topic, but in short Baal HaSulam writes the following.

The Creator deliberately created our ego, which divides between us. If we ascend above our ego and unite with one another, then the ego itself remains. We do not work on it, but only connect among us above it. Then the entire power and resistance of our ego, which obstructs us from connecting with each other, turns into the might of our unity.

That is how a resistor (resistance) works in an electrical circuit. When we let an electric current through it, then precisely this resistance is where we create the pressure that turns on an engine or any electrical device.

We need this resistance so that in opposition to it we could let the force of our unity through it. Then the might of our unity which we receive, reveals the spiritual world to us.

If we did not have this resistance between us, the way it was at the beginning of creation when we were all connected together directly, then we would remain on the same level – we would not perceive ourselves.

However, precisely because the resistance formed between us, which is our ego that separates us, and now we begin to unite, the might we receive by letting the force of our unity pass through the resistance, is what reveals the spiritual world to us. Then we ascend up 125 levels of our unity, against egoism, until we extract the entire infinite might from this common resistance.

The Book of Zohar holds precisely the Light that can give us the force to overcome the resistance, to unite with one another and inside the connection between us to reveal the entire spiritual dimension. Therein lies our work with The Book of Zohar.
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From the 4th lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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A Ladder Into The Sky

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe name Baal HaSulam means “Owner of the Ladder” in Hebrew. He received this name because of the title of the “Sulam (Ladder) Commentary on the Book of Zohar” which he wrote.

As he says, the revelation of this book, as well as the fact that he was able to create a commentary on the entire Book of Zohar is a sign that the generation is already worthy of correction, the revelation of spirituality to the masses, and with the dissemination of The Book of Zohar the whole world will come closer to correction.

When Baal HaSulam published The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, his students walked around the streets carrying volumes of this book, going to different places in an attempt to disseminate it. It was very difficult. People were afraid of The Book of Zohar because there were rumors that this book is very special, that is has enormous power, and is able to bring benefit as well as harm.

Only in our time, 60 or 70 years after the Sulam Commentary was created, we are presenting The Zohar to the world in an adapted form that makes it accessible for the wide masses so that everyone could read it and enjoy it.
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From the 4th lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Nature Is Above Logic

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are being given an example of how the world can change. A half a million people gather at the main square of a nation’s capital and demand a new government. Their protest causes the government to collapse. Could anyone believe this would be possible? After all, this is above logic!

This is a very good example of what can happen to any government. If this happened with the dictatorships in East Africa or in Asia, then it can certainly occur in Europe and in the US. It merely seems to us that is won’t come to pass.

Currently our nature is revealing a new means for social change, and it will lead to a great deal of turbulence. We think: How could people switch from an egoistic consumer society, such as it is in the US, to a society based on equal distribution? The government can’t do it because it is tied down by obligations toward everyone that supports it. It has to provide them with the promised standard of living and therefore can’t change itself or its life philosophy.

But when a half a million people come out to protest, a government collapses. It’s not due to the lack of power because the dictators have enough power to destroy the protestors with a couple of bombs. However, they’re unable to do so because nature has already changed, the society has evolved, and the times are different. There’re things a person can’t do not even knowing why.

This is how it happens and hence great changes are awaiting us.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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One Thought

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe need to stay focused on one thought: unity between us. We are learning everything from nature since there is nothing artificial in Kabbalah. Kabbalists are research physicists of the upper world. They revealed its laws and tell us what’s happening to us.

They reveal that in the spiritual world we are all connected, only not through physical bodies but through inner connections. In this material world each one of us has a spark of this connection, a small desire for spirituality.

Each person’s desire for spirituality is placed within his ego, and for this reason it’s called “the point in the heart.” This point is surrounded by the dark egoistic heart, and hence I don’t feel that my spark wants to connect to any other sparks.

If we could see into the spiritual world, the spiritual degrees, we would discover that all of our sparks are connected together and become one general Kli or desire. On an even higher spiritual degree, these sparks are even more connected, and instead of the Light of Nefesh, the soul is filled with the Light of Ruach. On an even higher degree, they are connected even more, and therefore attain the Light of Neshama, and so on.

There is nothing but the connection of these sparks that already exist in us! This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah addresses them in particular. Our thoughts should be focused only on how to connect our desires for spirituality. If we succeed even to a small extent, we will reach the revelation of the Creator to His creatures.

You must understand that those escaping from Egypt were no better than us. This is an escape from egoism, from Pharaoh, in the darkness and uncertainty, together with women, children, the elderly, and the slaves. This is our state exactly, and there is no such person who isn’t right for this. This is possible achieve.

Everything depends only on our efforts. After all, the only free action we can make is to get inspired by the environment.

I’m responsible for my environment. Only I can awaken it, not the Creator. If we develop a desire to connect to everyone and receive the influence of the environment, it would do the job! “We shall do and we shall hear”!
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From Lesson 1, World Kabbalah Convention 11/09/10

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Ascending To New Heights

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear friends!

We are all well-aware of the post-convention syndrome of general descent. Of course, we will not escape it this time as well, but only if we weaken the unification we have reached during the convention!

During the lessons, don’t hesitate to ask me questions about the prevention of the descent: We must turn the descents into a subsequent ascent! For the time being, I recommend that you study the convention lessons again and again.

I embrace you all,
Dr. Michael Laitman
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The Creator: The Witness Of Our Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I understand that I love my friend?

Answer: It happens when I cease to see his body completely and sense that our feelings (hearts) and minds are united together. At first we only imagine such connection to ourselves, but then it actually occurs beyond the bodies. In this connection we start to feel the Creator’s presence.

A state when you are capable of uniting with the friend in mind and heart and the Creator dwells between you is called love of the friend. One condition cannot be met without the others: All three parameters have to be joined together. The Creator becomes revealed between us as the witness of us being truly connected with each other.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Teaching Children The Perception Of Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I told my three year old son that everything that surrounds us exists within man. He asked me: “Does it exist inside my body?” And I didn’t know what to answer him. How can we explain it to a child?

Answer: It is forbidden to talk about these things with small children. We can discuss the correct perception of reality with nine year old children, by giving them the information in small portions since their internal and external perception of reality contradict each other.

This may induce a conflict in the child since his brain is not sufficiently developed yet and can’t perceive two parts as being both opposite to and connected with each other. All other things can be discussed at younger age.

It’s advisable to consult with us on such matters. We have collected a great deal of children education material; a big department is working on it; twice a week I hold talks on education, which provide answers to such questions.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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What Is My Life Mission?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I would like to thank you for devoting your life to this science.

Answer: This was not my choice. Just like you, I came to Kabbalah because I felt dissatisfied with life and searched for the most important thing in life.

At first I had hoped to receive answers to my questions in science, and only after numerous disappointments and lengthy searches did I come to Kabbalah. And I have only the Creator to thank for all of that.

However, He has made me in such a way that I won’t feel that I have realized myself until people reach His revelation through me.
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From the 2nd lesson at the WE! Convention, 4/1/11

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Everything Depends On The Right Focus

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe do not realize that our entire worldview passes through the prism of human society. The difference between the animate level and our, human level lies precisely in the fact that we build an environment.

We used to live in herds, just like animals. But then we started organizing special relationships among us, arranging people according to a hierarchy, and distributing functions. Our development thereby took on a social character even though it still unfolded egoistically, naturally, instinctively, by nature’s command. Yet we were becoming human.

We cannot even imagine what it would be like to live completely alone, without any memories of human society. In this situation a person would live by himself, on the level of an animal.

From this it is clear that we do not perceive reality the way it is, but through the environment. Society has raised me, endowed me with habits and models dictating how to look at what is happening, how to evaluate things, and how to accept everything that I see. My mind and feelings are programmed according to the value system that society has conditioned me to have over the course of the first 20 years of my life. I do not see the world the way it is, but the picture imposed on me by society.

Likewise, in the spiritual society we have to give a person our view of the world, funneled through the prism of love, the aspiration to bestow to others instead of personal benefit. Bestowal has to acquire the greatest importance in every person’s eyes.

At the same time a person’s worldview will still be built on the program “installed” in him by society. This is natural because it is the only way he can look at the world. A person by himself is just “an observation point,” whereas the analysis and understanding come from the norms of society, which tells him: This is important and this is not, this means one thing and that means something different. It’s as if we build a matrix in front of a person through which he sees the upper Light. Otherwise it would be impossible to see it.

On the other hand, right now we observe the upper Light through the matrix of human society. This is our world.

Thus, we have to become maximally included in the group, using the materials of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. That is how we build a new vision of the world inside of us. This is seen very clearly when looking at beginners. They come to the lesson or lecture as if they were coming from another world, but gradually they adopt a slightly different direction, a different perspective, and different values. Gradually we come closer to them and they change their point of view, the “polarization” of their picture of perception. In the same world, a different form of being comes through before them.

Then the lecture ends, the connection with me becomes severed, and everything disappears. Next time they return defocused again, with a distorted “resolution.” At every lecture it takes time to focus them anew, to bring the details that diffuse in their eyes back into one.

I am unable to do this all of the time. You have to focus on your own by uniting so that every mutual action will constantly keep you in the spiritual focus. It has to become focused a bit more and then a bit more, as if you are adjusting the resolution on binoculars by turning two lenses so they would come together on the spiritual goal. When you achieve this, you will immediately reveal the spiritual world.

Everything is determined by the love between friends. This is the “focus” that enables us to see the Creator. The friends bring together my feelings and mind in one direction, toward love for the neighbor, and then demand that I look only at them and that I think only about how to help them. I constantly concentrate on this and by means of the group I focus my attention into the thinnest line. That is how I reveal the Creator.
From the 5th lesson at the WE! Convention 4/1/11, Purpose of the Group

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A Real Virtual Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to organize an inner environment among us instead of the external, common human environment. Then our environment will offset the external influence and will influence us of its own accord, “brainwashing” us and intensively “advertising” spiritual ascent as the most important thing we have to accomplish in life.

Otherwise I will leave this world without any use. An animal lived and then died. The body has “strolled about” as long as it was allotted and then it decomposed, and in the meantime nothing was accomplished. The point instilled in it from the spiritual world remained a mere point and did not develop.

Everything depends on the importance of the environment. There is nothing more important than organizing a virtual environment that is warm and heart-felt. This is the most important thing. Otherwise my thoughts will disconnect from the right direction at every second and maybe the next time I disconnect, I will never return to it again.

After all, if I am given over to my own power, then I will never return to thoughts about spirituality. I stopped to think about it for the first time because the Creator, the upper force awakened me. The upper Light awakens Reshimot and that is how my spiritual Reshimo awakened, causing me to feel a desire that turns toward the Light. But this only happened once. Maybe the Creator will awaken the person once or twice more, but all the rest depends on us. I have to build an environment as fast as possible which will become a womb for me to raise my soul.

The spiritual environment has to be as numerous as possible, but more importantly, it must be as powerful and close-knit as possible. Baal HaSulam writes about this, and so does Rabash. The main force should be quality, not quantity. Quality determines everything.

The quality of the influence depends on how much we worry about one another, how inspired we become by one another, how much we return to the fundamental principles of the environment and take care to ensure that no one forgets about the goal. The thoughts of the friends are passed over to me and therefore, the more I inspire them, the more they inspire me in response.

I will not be able to awaken to spirituality unless I awaken the group to it. The group will inspire me also if I aspire it. We must always work in this closed circle.

That is why the virtual environment is important for us. We have to create a portal that will enable us to maintain unceasing contact with one another. It’s not accidental that communication means have been developed in the world enabling us to constantly stay in touch, to constantly see what is happening in our virtual environment.

I am dreaming about a virtual environment in which I will be able to constantly communicate and be in touch with you, to feel you by means of speech and music, 24 hours a day, non-stop. Then we will constantly give each other the realization of the importance of the goal, love, connection, and the right direction, and that is how we will hold ourselves in spiritual ascent and consolidation all together until we become a single vessel, one soul.

Let us hope that we will implement this platform and will stay in constant connection with it.
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From the 5th lesson at the WE! Convention 4/1/11

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