Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

Starting From The Lowest Point On Earth

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn preparation for the Convention at the Dead Sea:
Question: In four days a special Convention will be held at the Dead Sea. How should we prepare for it in order to attain the greatest possible advancement there for our entire group, our one big family?

Answer: Soon we will get together at this Convention at the Dead Sea and let’s hope that from this place, the lowest point on earth, we will be able to rise to the greatest height.

I am happy that we are organizing many meetings like this and hope that we will give the whole world our inner concentration and the force of our unity. Let’s stay together!
[35847]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
We Work With The Friends, But We Mean The Creator
Let’s Experiment!
Kabbalah Moments: Preparation For The Congress

A Question On “Practical Kabbalah”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you think about “practical Kabbalah,” a connection with the Sefirot?

Answer: I regret having to disappoint you, but none of this has anything to do with true attainment. There are no red strings, holy water, or ceremonial actions in Kabbalah.

Any person in the world with the desire to learn, regardless of their sex, religion, or nationality, can attain through the proper study and only through it. It’s as if they do not have a body. In other words, clothes, habits, and traditions do not matter. All of these things have absolutely nothing to do with Kabbalah.

Kabbalah is a science, and when we study it, we begin to perceive this world as a more connected, global world. This gives us a new perspective and a new life. We rise from a level where everything ends inside my body to a global, external level where I float outside of time.

This needs to be felt. I promise you that if you were to begin studying and enter this wisdom, you would feel that this is the way this works. A person of our world must rise to the degree of eternity.

Everything Kabbalah predicted has come true. Two thousand years ago, Kabbalists wrote that the world will enter a new phase of development when The Zohar will be revealed, and we will have to begin to work on our correction. I did not believe this when I started studying Kabbalah in the mid-seventies, but this really happened twenty years later, in the mid-nineties.
[35157]
From my lecture in Paris 2/1/2011

Related Material:
The Force That Enlivens The World
A Beginner’s First Questions
Building A Tunnel To The Spiritual World

Religious Resistance To Kabbalah

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is there such resistance to learning Kabbalah on the part of the religious, Orthodox world?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah became revealed thanks to Adam (“the First Man”) 5,770 years ago. He wrote a book about it entitled Raziel HaMalach (The Angel Raziel). This teaching continued through his students, and twenty generations later, there came Abraham, a sage who lived in ancient Babylon.

Abraham worshiped stars, spirits, and trees and made idols until the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed to him in the global form. He wrote about it in Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation).

Abraham led his disciples out of Babylon and into the land of Canaan. He organized a Kabbalistic group out of them, which lasted until the very fall of the Temple. All of them lived interconnected as a global, integral society, as one man with one heart. However, 2,000 years ago, at the time of the fall of the Temple, they fell from brotherly love into unfounded hatred.

This event was what is called the “fall” since they fell from the global world into our human egoism. That is how they lost the sensation of the spiritual world, the upper dimension, and started to feel just as all of us do now, meaning as existing only in our world, each one separately, egoistically.

Instead of living in the wisdom of Kabbalah and the collective, integral system, they began to experience only our world, as people still do today. At that time, Kabbalah, which is wisdom, attainment, knowledge, and spiritual science was replaced by religion and religious faith. After all, the spiritual world disappeared from their view.

This is the form we exist in to this day. Religions such as Judaism sprang up, which gave birth to Christianity, followed by Islam. All of these religions exist because the spiritual, global, and integral world is hidden from us.

However, as it unfolds, there will be no place for religions. They will become the cultural traditions of a nation. This is why there is such resistance between Kabbalah and Judaism, which has continued for the last 2,000 years.

Religious folks hate Kabbalah because it explains to them that they live in the dark and don’t understand where they are and what they are doing. However, there will come a time, and specifically in our days, when we will have to rise from the level of blind faith to the level of spiritual knowledge.
[35040]
From my lecture in Paris 2/1/2011

Related Material:
Religions Go With The Childhood Of Mankind
On Cultural Differences
Everything Depends On Definitions

An Article In The German Newspaper


During the recent European Convention in Berlin, I gave a number of interviews to the German media. In the picture below, you see my interview with a reporter from the German newspaper “Jüdische Allgemeine.” As a result of our conversation, the newspaper published a lengthy, serious article about the convention and our movement.

[35273]

Kabbalah As An Applied Science

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs any other science, Kabbalah is based solely on experiment. Look at a little human being, how he grows—this is how we used to develop in the past.

Over the course of millennia, we continuously summarized all of our observations and gradually turned them into the sciences. However, all of them are based solely on experiment, and nothing more. These experiments comprise the foundation of all sciences.

If something is not tested experimentally, it is not a science. It could be a product of your imagination, and another person could come up with something else. Only strictly recurrent data, results of experiments, can be turned into a science.

Suppose today I’m in my lab and I study a certain property or phenomenon. Consequently, I write an article for a scientific journal about the behavior of the phenomenon under question. Later, the results presented in the article are tested in other laboratories and places, and scientists write their feedback. Science is made up of all these elements.

This is how it was over the course of millennia. But today, we do not develop the science of Kabbalah, but rather apply it.

As of today, the wisdom of Kabbalah is already explicated, set out on paper. We have nothing to add, except for the materials that we write to help ourselves and people like us. That is, suppose there is certain upper physics, and then it is written out for students, for schoolchildren, for laymen, or for various practical applications. The same applies to Kabbalah.

Today we read The Book of Zohar, the works of the ARI, which are set forth and commented for us in the books of Baal HaSulam. Essentially, we have nothing to add to this. There are also articles and letters, meaning other material which we received from Baal HaSulam. Practically, this is it.

Beside this, we can only write about what we observe, see, in ourselves so as to assist other people who advance together with us or will follow us. That is, we do not develop the science, but adapt it for those who will come to it.
[34487]
From Lesson 3 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

Related Material:
Let’s Experiment!
The Most Powerful Medicine Is Here – And You Don’t Need A Prescription
A Kabbalist Is A Scientist Who Studies The Upper Nature

How Can We Change Our Fate?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the wisdom of Kabbalah, we study the upper world, how all creation is made, and what forces expand into our corporeal world. In the upper world, there are forces whereas in the physical one, there are objects that are affected by and are the product thereof.

The upper forces are called “roots,” and the lower ones (those manifested in our world) are “branches.” There is nothing else below our world and worse than it. That’s already good.

Everything that happens to us occurs under the influence of the forces that descend to us from the upper world, from the roots. There isn’t anything in our world that wouldn’t derive from Above. Therefore, it is pointless to blame someone for something: each other, other nations, the government, and nature since all of it is governed by the upper forces from Above downward. If we look at the entire picture logically and realistically, we will see that everything comes from Above.

It turns out that any problem we encounter, no matter what it entails, can be resolved only if we ascend to the level of these upper forces and start influencing them. Thus, we will be able to draw a different influence upon ourselves. That is, we will be affected not by the first forces, but rather by some type of their derivatives and the effect we instilled. Only in this manner will we cause changes in our world, and by no other means.

We tried, over the course of thousands of years by using all kinds of methods and practices, to affect our fate. And we see that it isn’t worthwhile. There is no point for us in appealing to the Creator: He (someone whom we imagine as the Creator) doesn’t hear us. And none of our actions in this world produce any results anyway. In the end, everything takes a course that it was supposed to take.

We, who have lived in this world long enough, see all this very clearly; therefore, we can agree with the wisdom of Kabbalah which states that at the level of our world, there is no solution to anything. Our world is the effect, and all the solutions are at the level where decisions are made: in the upper world.

Thus, namely in our time, when humanity, having arrived at the integral, global crisis, is realistically facing a serious problem, and when everything that is happening to us below is already part of this integral picture, only then do we receive an opportunity to influence these general forces by coming together.

Essentially, we have to affect only a single force since there is only one upper force which simply splits into its multiple sub-forces, the individual forces that impact us.
[34479]
From Lesson 5 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011

Related Material:
The Light Of The Upper Worlds And Our Life In This World
Tasting All The Worlds
The Aspiration To Be Above All Limitations

The Light Of The Upper Worlds And Our Life In This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen studying spiritual properties and structures, we discover very peculiar groupings, combinations, and characteristics of these forces. They group among themselves. Each force and property groups with others by Sefirot and Partzufim.

A Partzuf is a system that spreads its influence downward on our corresponding projection here, in this world. And the Partzufim link together into complete, more global mergers called the worlds. Thus, in the upper world, there are worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot.

Sefirot are the smallest enterprises, associations. A Partzuf is a more global one. And a world is a bigger, global merger. The worlds comprise a single upper world. And all of this in order to channel the unique Upper Light, the Light of the Creator, to us, those who reside here at the bottom, in our world.

Hence, while studying Kabbalah, we can envision what is the best way for us to get organized in order to build our society, our family, home, education, relationships between husband and wife, men and women in general, the nations and the world correctly.

What can we do to correspond and to be adequate to our roots? In the degree that we are equivalent to them, we will feel more comfortable in our world. And if we achieve some general correspondence to the upper world, the upper Partzuf (albeit not with entire humanity, but a certain group or association, for now), then we will start sensing the upper world and ourselves as one whole. It is regarded as our ascent to the upper world.

Since there is only one force that influences us, it impacts practically the entire world at the same time. Therefore, the closer all the components of our world are and the more harmoniously they interact with each other, the closer are we going to be to this integral force. This is the general rule.
[34484]
From Lesson 5 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011

Related Material:
Separating In Order To Connect
The Global System Of The Future Society
Where Do You Go When The Rails Run Out?

Let’s Experiment!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Kabbalah is an experimental science. Can we relate to the current convention as to an experiment?

Answer: Each of us is a Kabbalist and a scientist in a sense that he carries out an experiment on himself and experiences the application of Kabbalah, its conclusions and correctness personally.

Some 30 years ago I was reading the well-known book Shamati (I Heard) and I understood, perhaps, one one-hundredth of a percent from it. Then, with each year, re-reading it and feeling its result on myself, I compared what was going on with me to what was written in the book and was astonished to discover that this book really described everything that was happening with me. And so I keep re-reading Shamati over the course of 30 years (I received it in 1979), and each time I discover that this book talks about me.

Even after ten years this book will reveal itself to me as a source that describes everything about me. Everything! This is because the person who wrote it began from the bottom, as do all people, and then ascended spiritually and wrote it from a spiritual level which I am not able to reach yet.

And if I were to rise higher, then I would suddenly discover that this book no longer speaks of the states I am going though. It would become clear to me; I would clearly see that the author reaches only up to a particular level and no further.

We see this with some of the Kabbalistic book authors, although it does not depreciate them in any way! They wrote up to the level which they had attained, and it is the same with each one of us.

On the other hand, what right do we have to interpret, write, and add to the writings of the great Kabbalists of the past? The truth of the matter is that we write what is correct at our levels. It is precisely because we are small that we can write all of this through this level. This way, it is easier for the people who come to Kabbalah to find contact with our material, rather than with the great works of the past because those Kabbalists wrote them from a great spiritual height.

But, ultimately, today we are truly carrying out an experiment on ourselves, and we will keep carrying out this experiment throughout our whole life until we reach the very end of correction. That is why Kabbalah, as compared to the rest of the sciences, does not work outside the person. You are not studying something that is outside of yourself, but rather on yourself, within yourself. So, let’s experiment!
[34489]
From Lesson 3 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

Related Material:
Now I Get It!
All That Is Bad In You Is Your “Self”
Miraculous Glasses

Climbing The Steps Of Conventions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we say that now, after the convention in Berlin, we are united?

Answer: We have reached a new state in our unity. I am happy about what took place in Berlin and after that in Paris. We have reached unity, cohesion. For the first time we discovered many friends in Europe who already understand the path and feel the development. I was really pleasantly surprised by some events.

Ahead of us we have an April convention in New Jersey. Let’s hope that we will come to a new degree of unity in the United States as well. Thus, by uniting during the conventions we will accumulate the necessary force for the revelation of the Creator to the creature.
[34402]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, “When the Creator Loves Man”

Related Material:
On The Way From Chaos To Harmony
See You In Berlin!
Russia And Europe: On The Path To Spirituality

On The Way From Chaos To Harmony

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The motto of the Berlin Convention was “Harmony.” What does a Kabbalist imply under the term “harmony”?

Answer: When speaking about harmony, a Kabbalist implies complete similarity to the upper degree: the supreme energy, information, the so-called Light that surrounds us, with which we have to come into full contact and in which we have to dissolve. But at the same time, our “self” doesn’t disappear. On the contrary, our “self” and the Light completely merge into one whole. This harmony is our goal.

All of humanity descended from the degree regarded as the “world of Infinity” or harmony, where everything was as one whole. Gradually, coming down along the five worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, we reached our most opposite state: “our world”. Obviously, there is no harmony here. This is the world of chaos and darkness.

We ended up here, in this state, and over the course of many thousands of years, our entire history, we have been evolving at the animate level. But today, we are beginning our ascent to the first degree of our spiritual evolution.

All of this global mess that exists in the world, all this chaos that we are now beginning to experience, this mutual hate amidst our total interdependence, emerges in us from our first spiritual degree. By now we must all be interconnected with one another at this level in 1/125th degree of our complete oneness.

This degree is already illuminating us from afar, and this is why the corporeal world seems to us so frightening, divided, antagonizing, residing in absolute hatred, and totally incapable of getting together to find a way to get along. As usual, the heads of the governments come to Davos and then somewhere else to only realize nothing is up to them. And nothing will be! No way! No treaties will help! Humanity will face a state when it either destroys itself or unifies. The question is how?

This particular question: “But how?” will arise. And then they, too, will realize that there is no other chance but to employ the method of unification that was revealed as early as ancient Babylon for this very reason. That is when people will turn to Kabbalah indeed.

But first, they have to face this most horrific question. It arises either in those who had internally matured for this and come to us individually or in the entire world after it has come “to a dead end.” So, this sensation of chaos, darkness, and lack of harmony arises as a state opposite to that higher evolutionary degree that we must reach, where we are illuminated by harmony, oneness, and integral existence.

Today we are already experiencing both of these states. Hence, in this transitional state our world is moving toward the first spiritual degree. To break through is the most difficult stage.

If we, our world Kabbalistic group, hundreds of thousands of people, will gradually, from convention to convention, create such tension and bond between us; if we undergo all of the states of desperation and still demand oneness from within; if we, even the smallest part of humanity, manage to realize it, it will be the life saver for the entire humanity. And the harmony they will feel coming from us will draw the whole human race to us like a magnet. That’s what we must achieve.

Therefore, harmony that Kabbalah discusses is a state where all people are unified as one whole, one collective image regarded as “Adam”: the collective desire, the integral soul, within which the higher degree, our eternal, perfect state, is revealed. And this can be done. It is all up to us.
[34348]
From Lesson 1 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011

Related Material:
The Final Frontier
The Path To Ultimate Harmony
A Sandstorm Of Our Egoism