Entries in the 'Dissemination' Category

All Work Must Finish With A Prayer

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe most important task in this world is for a person to be constantly ready for prayer. This is the only action that can make a difference. We make efforts physically, mentally, in thought, and in desire, but in fact we needed all these thousands of actions for thousands of years only so that at the end of the matter we would reach the right prayer, cry, desire. When we can accept our desire in the right form, then we will succeed in attracting the higher power to us that does everything.

Only the Light acts and only we with a “point in the heart” are prepared to arouse the Light to action. Basically, all the rest cannot do this, only to the most minimal degree by way of “in its time” (Isaiah 60:22) and to the degree that we are integrated with them, yet no more than this. About this it is written that the “nations of the world” have no link with the higher power, with the Creator. The general desire for pleasure, according to its structure, cannot connect directly with the Creator, except only through those who have the spiritual spark.

Therefore, at those times and in those conditions where we cannot arise correctly for the world, we distance ourselves and the whole world from the Creator. Through the evil powers that rise, by means of the feeling of distance and recognition of evil, in spite of it all we advance, yet not in a desirable way.

Only we who have a “point in the heart” are ready to pray. All the rest do this either out of habit implanted from childhood or with simply egoistic motives. And the prayer of a simple egoist is better since the person screams about his pain. All dissatisfaction is already a prayer and a cry to the Creator, even if the person doesn’t think about Him. This is already some kind of turning upward. These turnings have been gathered for thousands of years from the screams of billions of people, and eventually collectively awaken them and the Upper Light.

Yet even though the Upper Light reaches them through us, the general structure is not changed. Even if we are not ready to work with the Light correctly, it is there and exists. And so it reaches us and bumps into us like a wall because we are found in exile and cannot think about the nations of the world.

In a form like this, we are far from the Creator because we are not raising the prayer to Him, and we are also distant from the nations of the world because we have not conveyed their prayer upwards. It follows that we are at a double loss. We need to consider this! The problems and troubles will not cease as long as the people of Israel have not realized their real task, until it will be the higher level for the nations of the world in order to convey the double prayer, theirs and that of the entire world, to the higher level.

We are supposed to make practical applications for our work with the general public, meaning, those who are not ready to awaken to connection with the Creator and are therefore called the “nations of the world.” As much as this work with people will be perfected, skillful, professional, it will not bring the right results and will not bear fruit if it doesn’t end with a prayer.

All our invested efforts, each one separately and all together, are imperative solely and only so that we will reach prayer. From the start we went out to operate because the Creator sent us (“I am first”) so that as a result of our action we would reach the double prayer after we absorb the desires of the people and thereby arouse our desire. Then we can ask to make us a part of the conduit only for their sake so we will be able to take care of people. After all, the Creator created us with a “point in the heart.”

Following work like this with the general public, we reach the lifting of prayer, that is, the work entrusted to Israel. Here there already exist the three components required for spiritual action: the lower level – the public, the upper level – us; and the highest level – the Creator. In this way we work together.

If we think about this before and after the action, and are prepared to link it to this state, then our action will be blessed and successful. About this it is written: “The firstborn… give him a double share” (Deuteronomy 21:17), for himself and for the younger brother.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/13

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A Million Dollars Or The Upper Light?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The goal of our dissemination is to supply people with what they want. What are we giving them? Is this the million dollars that they want to make, some gifts, or something else?

Answer: Our relationship in regard to the people in the world is like a relationship with little children, we give them what they need and not what they are asking for because they ask for something that is liable to harm them, and we are trying to protect them and keep them far from these things.

If we were to go out to the world and say “Ask for what you want and we will give it to you,” then your question would be correct. But we come to the world and say, “You want money, knowledge, wealth, happiness, health, and security? All of this is available with just a little effort to unite.” We don’t just offer their getting what they want; rather, we establish the conditions necessary for connection.

It is specifically their effort to connect that awakens the Surrounding Light that reaches them through us, and with its influence, their desires begin to be changed, are made more spiritual. Certainly, they still want the regular earthly fulfillments like food, sex, a normal family, various entertainments, but together with this, their desires are fundamentally changed. Therefore our appeal is called Integral Education. They begin to ask other questions.

Essentially we present them with ordinary actions that are accepted in the world. We know that if people gather and do something together most of the time they will succeed. But together with this, we do the opposite. We gather them not in order to carry out work together for the public good, but so that with the shared discussion that they do before the cooperative work, they will feel some kind of new power; a new society is created within them, a “raspberry sphere” is created within them.

Ultimately they will begin to understand that the connection brings them not only a solution to all their day-to-day problems, but also gives a feeling of warmth, elevation in life, and a little energy. They don’t know where it is coming from, but it exists.

We make roundtables around which gather people from various camps that really hate each other, Arabs and Jews, Druze and Bedouins. And suddenly after 40-50 minutes, they are ready to embrace and sing together. The aggression disappears, for the Upper Light passes through us to them. They don’t feel this. The Light works on them and they suddenly begin to understand that they need to rise above their antagonism and, specifically thanks to the hatred, in spite of the hatred, they need to feel mutual attraction and even love.

For the ego was created in order to rise above it and to reach an opposite characteristic. From the characteristic of reception, we reach the characteristic of bestowal, from hatred we reach love. So we justify the Creator who created the ego. It is said: “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice”—take it, correct it, and receive a characteristic that is the complete opposite of evil, goodness and love.

Therefore your question, “What do we give them?” is the right question. Through us we convey the Upper Light.

When I work with the public, I begin to need the Creator. For I invest, I promise, I work with people. If nothing succeeds, this will be a disaster. I am like some kind of robber or con man, I get myself into a dangerous situation and wait to see if I will succeed or not. If I don’t succeed, then I will get blows or worse, they will shame and curse me.

Therefore I am compelled (and this is the best situation) to turn to the Creator, for ultimately I feel a need for Him. For the first time in my life I truly need Him. This is because I feel that my ego, my pride, the terrible shame that I am liable to feel if I won’t succeed, simply burns me. This is the worst feeling. And without a choice, with the friends we are ready to do everything in order to succeed.

We are really lucky that in our time there is an opportunity like this. Otherwise we would not build this chain, we would not be ready to turn to the Creator, for our appeal would be egoistic.

And since we begin to think about the people, our appeal to the Creator is true MAN. In fact, everything is very simple. We only need to begin and you will see how the Creator puts the conditions before you that insert you into this system: lower, upper, and you in the middle.

Specifically you are the middle; therefore, without a choice, both from above to below and also from below to above, you don’t act for your own sake. Ultimately you merit receiving the anti-egoistic parts, first zero, after that the first, the second, the third. This is to say, you begin to feel the spiritual worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and so forth.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 4

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Hopeless Romantics And Realists

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen addressing a wide audience, what we give is not speculation but facts about the integral world, about a single system, which is being eaten away by the cancerous tumor of egoism. The world, as well as the living body, needs balance, which is a sign of health and fulfilling life.

Listeners should be turned into partners working on the material being taught. We do not oppose their beliefs but involve them initially to a rethinking about the world. Together with them, we see the world and understand how we live and function. And then of course, we understand that our future existence can be built only on equilibrium and the one who upsets balance, destroys and undermines the general system, until he dies, like cancer killing the body or humanity that is ruining nature.

People do not see how they could live differently and we agree with them that the exit is nowhere in sight. And yet we point them at the ideal, universal law of equilibrium because the world is headed for disaster.

In fact, we start talking not about unity but about the current situation: Today we live in a “bubble,” in some “field,” subject to the laws of equilibrium. And we do not match them. From generation to generation, we are becoming greater egoists and see this inevitable trend even in our own children, and that is why our problems are becoming more acute like during the development of metastasizing cancer.

In the end, we state the facts, nothing more. And if these facts can be revealed a little, in small doses, people will internalize them and agree with us.

This is the first stage of the explanation: I seemingly accompany my listeners on the path of the initial knowledge and awareness, and we become more united. Together, we look at the world and the crisis that it is experiencing in all areas.

Indeed, humanity is in a tragic situation, but still we do not see it yet. Even in an individual family it is not easy to establish relations that have been soured, and on a global scale, no one even dreams of unraveling the tangle of all of humanity. Although ideally, the world needs unity, today we see more clearly that unity is a dream of romantics or fools.

It is all correct because by nature we are opposite to the outer Nature, and thus in principle, are doomed to extinction. In fact, behind the illusion of life, we are approaching death second by second.

So perhaps, we should agree with it and quietly live our days? Should we impose a new philosophy in society, a new view of what is happening and put up with this? Even today, people do not want to have children, so let our generation become the last on earth?

Here, we take people to the “loophole,” to the unused opportunity. A special force acts in external integral Nature, and if we are together, the group somehow becomes similar to it, then something from Nature—its integral potential—will be manifested in this group. And then our group becomes connected with nature as one. Everything outside and inside seems to be filled with integral force.

After all, all ills, all problems, are ultimately caused by a huge difference (Δ) between us and Nature. And accordingly, if we eliminate this difference, we will not simply become liberated but will become eternal and perfect like all of Nature. Even physicists confirm that this is possible. And the key is that the group, according to its properties (form 1), would be consistent with Nature (form 2). By drawing closer to each other, we become like it.

How can we make the first form equal to the second? How can we get close?

“Very simply, let’s try, organize a workshop, and you will feel this.” The main thing is the questions and discussion help people become closer, excite them, and promote agreement instead of arguments.

And then the warmth of unity will envelop them, common feelings, around which they will begin to unite. It will take 20 to 30 minutes, and they will be imbued with a new spirit, as if their frequencies match. This will be the first example for them of what can be found in unity.

This force is in Nature, but you need to connect to feel it, and then it will correct everyone’s flaws and problems in all areas of  their lives.

How? This is the next lesson …
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There Is No Prophet In His City

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it worthwhile for me to talk about what we are doing with integral education at my workplace?

Answer: No, at work, it is better not to engage in dissemination activities. It is better that some stranger come to your workplace, for example, your friend from the group, that nobody knows this is linked to you, that you don’t have any relationship to this.

There is a saying: “There is no prophet in his own country.” Usually if a person portrays himself at work as an expert in any area not related to their profession, then as a general rule, he isn’t taken seriously: “We know him. He grew up with us, we were in the same kindergarten, he went to school with us”; that is,  you already don’t have the relationship to be a teacher.

“There is no prophet in his own country.” A prophet must come from another place.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 4

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What Are You Living For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I don’t have the motivation to be involved with dissemination, in spite of all this, what would compel me to go and disseminate?

Answer: This would be the aspiration of your own soul. It is not found in you. Rather, it is in your link with others. However, what are you living for?

As of today, you exist like “beasts.” You were born, you live on what is allocated to you, and you die. You haven’t found anything. You haven’t done anything. No memory of you will remain. After that, you again will appear in that beastly form, for they again will give you the opportunity to realize yourself, but again from that same point, only in a worse state because you have not utilized the past. You need to catch up, to repay the debt.

What are you learning for? Why? Where is your greatness of the Creator? The Creator is the characteristic of love and bestowal. How have you elevated it? The greatness of the characteristic of bestowal and love is expressed in this: that you are devoted to this characteristic and strive to realize it.

Question: However, if I go to disseminate, this is also an egoistic calculation.

Answer: Certainly, you begin to disseminate from an egoistic calculation, but when you begin to work with the masses, then their desires and shortcomings penetrate into you. The imperative that they will succeed appears in you because they become precious and important to you, like your own children, and you already begin to ask for them, and even though, in principle, you also are asking egoistically, you are asking for the others and not for yourself, therefore, you begin to receive an ascent.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 4

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Growth Is In Width And Not In Height

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person continue on his way and not be in despair that he still has not attained anything after studying for so many years?

Answer: You did not do anything in order to achieve something. You have been involved with the wisdom of Kabbalah as egoists for self-fulfillment. You did something among you in a group. You brought no good to anyone. You have not been involved with dissemination. You are stewing in your own juices.

What do you mean that you should have something? What acts of bestowal have you done? Why do you suppose that you deserve something? Based upon what?

Sure, I always encourage you, “Come, go ahead, and more…” For what purpose does the Creator require so many people today who are learning the wisdom of Kabbalah? Why does He awaken this desire in you? This is so that they will go forward, to the people. Moreover, he grows them not qualitatively, upward, like the great Kabbalists of the past, but quantitatively so that they will begin to enter into the masses.

Before you now is opening the practical realization of the wisdom of Kabbalah. If you will begin to be involved with this, then through you the Upper Light will pass and you will receive it. If it won’t pass through you to the masses, then you never will receive it. This is because all of your requests are egoistic, “Give to us!” Therefore, your fate is in your hands.

For many years, we have been involved with dissemination for the purpose of attracting people like us. For this, we have prepared a group. We have prepared ourselves.

Now, we are beginning to realize the wisdom of Kabbalah among the masses and precisely in the form of integral education. Humanity must unite because love of the other becomes the foundation for the integral method. There are no lofty materials and explanations here. If we disseminate this, then we surely will succeed.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 4

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A Teacher Who Is Always With You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We need to take upon ourselves work that is foreign to the ego and completely above its power, and charge the group’s to do its best. Then not having achieved the result, we ask bring the matter as a helper to and worker of the Creator, and only then do we get the result.

How can we differentiate at the beginning of the work between madness and folly versus courage and consideration? Where is this boundary found?

Answer: Here it is necessary to have someone who manages the process who “there and then” can approve or reject every detail that the operators need to know about using it. So they need to be maximally connected among themselves more and more, so as to turn to Him nevertheless.

The world cannot get along without a “king,” without his representatives, without those who are loyal to him. Man needs someone near him who knows more than he does, who sees the future and outlines the right directions. “This is not for us but we will go there, will do what you think is right within these limits.”

This hierarchy must be constant. Among our groups there cannot be some kind of group that does everything it thinks is important according to its discretion will ultimately succeed. This is because the ego constantly accompanies it and the group needs new discernments, new stages of clarification all the time.

Regretfully I don’t think that this great dependence will diminish with time. On the contrary, it will grow. I know this from my mutual relationship with my teacher Rabash: The more I advanced, the more I needed him, actually came closer and closer to him.

In our world it is precisely the opposite: The more that a child grows, he becomes more and more independent until he leaves his parents’ home.

Whereas here you become more and more adherent to those who are higher, for essentially they link you to the Creator, you simply are not ready to get along without Him. And therefore, I now learn much more from my teacher than I learned thirty years ago….
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/13, Lesson on the Topic: “Sukkot”

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Intention: An Oil Painting

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the correct intention? How is it manifested: in feelings or in the mind?

Answer: The correct intention is the picture of the desired state, the painting, which has me, the world, and the Creator all together. The painting depicts my aspirations. I want to reach this image in reality; it is the future state that I set for myself as the goal.

The intention is not a mantra, not an empty fantasy, but the picture of the future world that I want realize in life. It changes all the time, but most importantly, it incorporates everyone. I do not erase or not gloss over anything; I am not the master of this majestic panorama; I only want that all its parts is lined up in just this way.

Looking at the future reality, I want everyone to live in adhesion with the Creator. It is the idyll, harmony, the perfect canvas of universal unity. Everyone attains Him, everyone is united with Him, and for this they are united with each other. Everyone is as one man with one heart and together with the Creator—Israel, the Torah, and the Creator is one. This is my intention so I want to see, understand, and feel the reality; I want to live in this world. This is my dream.

When I speak to someone within the framework of dissemination, I have more or less a clear program of how to bring him to this picture of my intention. He will be integrated with it; he will be more or less active in it, depending on whether the point in the heart has been awakened in him. Anyway, I want him to be also involved in the process; that is the purpose of my dissemination. After all, I know that only in this case will it be good. That is why I want to involve him in this picture.

Of course, along the way I bring him evidences proving that it is the only true path; I explain how to act and show that this technique is not fraught with danger and brings only good things for him, his children, his friends…

This is along the way, but in the end, I want him to become one with me in order to achieve the goal.
[117332]
From the 4th   part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Rules Are The Same For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Are the rules of our workshops suitable for workshops we hold for the 99% of humanity?

Answer: Absolutely. The rules at all the levels are the same, only the expressions should be selected so that they would not alienate people. The law is the same in all the worlds, including our world. And all things considered, the connections between us are the same. Only we are not talking about the Light, Kli (vessel), MAN, MAD, etc. We present it in everyday terms: connection, love, alienation, convergence.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was considered a secret and was not revealed until people began to need it. And as soon as the need appeared, and the world was shown as integral, globally disassembled, and broken, the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed immediately, and now we have to tell everyone about it but only in the usual terms of our world.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 4

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Work For Practical Revelation Of The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf a person is looking for a way to connect himself to the King, to appear before Him, he is sent this opportunity. We are honored to carry out such dissemination to the broad masses that we find the need to make contact with the Creator, feeling our dependence on Him.

The whole world feels dependent on something that is not clear. Every day there is a growing sense of helplessness and uncertainty of what will happen tomorrow. But we have chosen spiritual development as the goal of our life and deserve the opportunity to perform material actions toward this. This work brings us to the conclusion about our own powerlessness in relation to the goal.

We understand that we need the Creator, His help. We lack motivation, the importance of the goal, persistence, and stability in advancement toward it, and ask why we do this and who needs it. All this forces us to seek connection with the Creator, to ask for help, and to connect all our success with Him.

The more efforts we make, the more precious the goal in which we have invested so much becomes and the more we need the Creator. And he who does not want to invest a lot of effort does not appreciate the goal much, and therefore does not need the Creator much. It turns out that the physical contribution to dissemination, to the work with the public, is the means that brings us closer to the Creator because due to it, we increasingly feel our dependence on Him.

We can develop this feeling of our dependence on the upper force in the group at the workshops. And if we are lazy in this, the Creator will have to add some problems, suffering. Suddenly, there are enemies, ill-wishers, and we will feel more dependent on the Creator.

It is here where the cut between the path of suffering and the path of the Light lies. If we try to cling to the Creator when life is good, we advance by the path of the Light. And if we forget and are a little bit lazy, then we immediately see how we become less successful and have more and more enemies. The Creator corrects us in this way, as if aiming a missile at the target, correcting its trajectory right and left, and returning it to the right course. Thus, we have to keep moving in order to reach the goal. The entire process will be revealed in this work.

It is good that every time we come to a company, prison, school, organize lectures, workshops, and round tables, we feel tired and lacking any force, any motivation. And then we have the need to turn to the Creator again! Thus, we are constantly being renewed. This forces us to be renewed. And those who do not do this do not feel the need to turn to the Creator; there is no reason for it.

Thus we raise a prayer for help, MAN, because we see that the Creator must be at the beginning of all our actions. And just in order to please Him, I go on every mission. In every action I need to see myself performing this mission and the people I meet as the representatives of the Creator. The Creator sent them to me so that through contact with these people I reveal the Creator in practice, between us, in the connection of broken vessels.

In the end, we must come to the state when we cancel our ego; it remains below and we connect above it, as it is said: “Love covers all transgressions.” We reach the love for the Creator through the love for the created beings; one is the Light and the other is the vessel. Thus we will advance.

It is said: “He who sits at home is not like the one standing in front of the King.” If we are ready to go out of our home and to stand before the King, then go out to disseminate. And then every second we have the opportunity to contact the Creator and the need, the necessity for this contact, because otherwise we cannot make any effort.

We just need to understand that our weakness is a special angel who takes away our power to force us to turn to the Creator. There is no forgetfulness; all these are the special forces specifically working with us. Nothing happens by chance just like that. There is no accident!
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

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