Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

The Purpose Of A Kabbalistic Group, Part 5

laitman_530Goal of a Group— Unite in One Desire

Question: On one hand, a group in Kabbalah means not people themselves, but the totality of their desires.

On the other hand, this group of people united by a single idea is necessary in order to increase the desire because everyone comes to it with their small desire for spirituality. Therefore, the goal of the group is to increase the desire. How does this happen?

Answer: No. The goal of the group is to connect with each other to the extent that it represents one single desire.

The group is assembled not by people, but from above. It is powered by the upper light, the Creator. Therefore,  the action of the members of the group is to unite and become as similar as possible to the upper light.

This is a very complicated relationship because it exists against their huge egoism. But the greater their rejection from each other and the greater their aspiration to each other, they achieve a certain combination between egoistic darkness and altruistic light in this and a state arises in which they can feel the upper force.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/6/19

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laitman_947The Structure of a Ten

Comment: After Abraham, Moses continued developing the spiritual method. He divided the Jewish people into tens, small groups in which everyone could somehow express the property of bestowal and love.

Even books were written by Kabbalists not individually, but in tens, in groups. Interestingly, a ten means not ten physical bodies, but a set of desires. Therefore, two people can also be considered a ten.

My Response: A ten is a complete common desire. In this way, The Book of Zohar was written. Since we are in the last generation, in the final correction, we should try to make the same group as those who wrote The Book of Zohar.

Question: Were you and your teacher also a ten, a group?

Answer: Yes, but it was a completely different state, unlike today.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/6/19

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Laitman_524.01Unique Generation

The great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, wrote that we are a unique generation because we have to master Kabbalah specifically within the group. Group work began with Baal Shem Tov and gradually continued to develop to this day.

Now we have to begin forming mini-unions within tens, to somehow show the world how we can unite, what we should be aimed at and how to go about it; meaning, we need to give the world an example of what its future would be like.

Question: So the group of people, or we can say the whole of humanity, is the place where the upper force, the Creator, becomes revealed?

Answer: Yes. We have to attain all the worlds while being in this world, in this life.

Question: Can the revelation of the Creator be compared to revealing the force of gravity that we all feel? There is a certain force of gravity between us all on the societal level.

Answer: Yes. But the thing is that we do not feel the upper force because each of us exists in a paticular individual concealment from it.

Thus, we are given the science of Kabbalah that helps everyone reveal it individually, but at the same time, we have to create a certain common entity—a group within which, inside a ten, we can begin to feel our similarity with the upper force.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/6/19

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Attaining The Creator In The Center Of The Group

laitman_938.04Question: On our path, we should go through moments of hatred. If hatred is not revealed, is it a sign that we are not advancing?

Answer: We should not wait for any negative feelings. If we do not have them so be it. We just need to move toward the center of the group and persistently look for the Creator in it.

Our work is very simple. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), the Creator brings a person to the group, places his hand on the correct path and says “Take it.”

Now in the group, we just need to increase the influence of the environment on us until we will attain the Creator in the center of the group. That’s it! There is nothing else!

We will see that the world around us is all fiction. All of it is the illusory world (Olam ha Medume). There is only the ten and the Creator within the ten. I want you to leave the convention with this thought, with this truth.
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From the World Kabbalah Convention in Moldova 9/8/19, “Collecting All the States Toward the Creator,” Lesson 7

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The Purpose Of A Kabbalistic Group, Part 1

laitman_962.5Everyone has their own path toward the Creator

Question: Throughout history some Kabbalists have reached spiritual attainment without teachers. There were those who attained the Creator without the sources and even those who have done it without the group. How can one reach the goal without these factors?

Answer: It depends on the goal, the state, and the point in time.

Remark: The goal of those who study Kabbalah is to reveal the Creator.

My Comment: Even that can be quite different. Just like in our world one can be educated on different levels, in various aspects: in depth or in width, etc.

The fact is that all the souls are different, from various parts, meaning different parts of the common soul. Thus, throughout 20 generations from Adam to Abraham there were such souls that did not have the need for Kabbalah because they had a natural inner inclination toward attainment.

Question: Just like today there are people who are naturally embedded with the ability to heal people?

Answer: Exactly. They don’t know where they get it from. There are people who, on the contrary, attain it with knowledge and understanding, through teachers, through small groups of people. Everyone has their own path toward the Creator; there’s nothing that can be said about that.
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From the KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/6/19

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Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 9/6/19

laitman_597.02Question: What should be the prayer if you feel like a clump of evil and corruption?

Answer: That is great. If we all felt like such clusters of evil, egoism, envy, jealousy, meanness, and everything that possibly exists, it would be perfect. How much a person would want, if not to get rid of it, at least to paint over it a little!

This is good. It means one already has a need to change oneself.

Question: How and when we will be able to connect all of our AHP to us?

Answer: To do this, first you must have Galgalta ve Eynaim and then AHP. First of all, you must have bestowing desires, then you will be able to work with the desires to receive for the sake of bestowal.

Question: How can we not come to inaction or indifference because of annulling ourselves?

Answer: Let’s first learn to annul ourselves and then we will see. You are right, there is a question in this. The fact is that I am annulling not myself, but my egoistic participation, and ask that in its place, the Creator will give me new strength, the quality of bestowal.

Question: If concession to the friend does not lead to the greatness of the goal, should you concede to him?

Answer: If this is a ten, I do not make any calculations whether it does or does not lead to the goal. Most importantly, by conceding to the friend I move toward the goal.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “To Become Ready to Be Influenced by the Society,” Lesson 2

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World—Reality Or Illusion? Part 15

laitman_963.8Playing Equivalence With The Creator

Question: How can those of us studying Kabbalah feel the Creator if we simply play the role of those who feel Him in front of the friends, but really don’t know anything about Him except His qualities? How will we know that we are approaching Him and it is not an illusion or just our imagination, but it will become real?

Answer: Try to play as if you are similar to the Creator with respect to your friend. And you will see how much this begins to develop you and your friend.

The friend in his turn will also begin to react to you in the same way. Thus, you will be developing each other together, and the Creator will be helping you both.

The main thing is to try to do everything in a way in which you would manifest yourself like the Creator.
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From Kab TV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

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Companions On The Spiritual Path

laitman_749.03Question: What conditions are necessary to receive a response to MAN? Maybe we need to create a special service for this?

Answer: I do not know what service you can create and for whom. There is no need to build any channels other than proper communication with each other.

The common desire rising from the group will create that service, that channel through which all your private desires, connected together, form a huge desire called “MAN.” You will definitely get an answer to it. It all depends on how much you try to unite among yourselves for the sake of attaining the Creator.

You have a very clear goal: to attain the Creator. Therefore, it does not matter to you who is sitting nearby. If a person wants to be with you in achieving your goal, then he is your companion, and you can progress. That is how you should look at each other, purely as consumers.

Do not look at the appearance of a friend, at his character and habits. It does not matter to you what and who he is. What matters is that he strives for the same goal. Therefore, he can be your companion, an assistant without whom you will not achieve your goal.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamenatals of Kabbalah,” 8/18/19

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On A Small Raft

laitman_290If I am constantly in the friends, I will not fall, I can balance my states. It is like we are standing on a raft buffeted by the waves, all ten of us. All of our work is in balancing the raft in the stormy sea; everyone makes efforts only for this.

There is a level in the middle of the raft showing the horizontal level and we all focus on it, on the middle line. We do this together or we cannot balance the level. We must feel one another, understand what each one is doing, and what we need for balance. We do not work in turns, one after another, we must be connected internally even before performing actions in order to align the level to zero.

By balancing the level, I perform an action opposite of the Creator: He raises the waves and I want to compensate for the disturbance, to make up for His work, and thus, I call Him. I work with the screen and the reflected light against the Creator, leading to a collision due to the oppositeness of our actions, and at the same time, to adhesion because we work together. It is as if we are dancing a tango, like a bride and groom.

This requires connection of the hearts. The mind will not help here; it works too slowly. Only the heart can react instantly. If one heart feels the other, they will immediately get along even before the comprehension reaches the mind and it begins to think.

Therefore, we want to be in one heart. When we feel that it is possible, we suddenly understand how in fact the spiritual world is arranged: “up to the reason.” The mind will begin to react in half a minute and not before; therefore, the main thing is the feeling, which responds immediately.

One heart means that there is no difference in our attitude; there is no delay from heart to heart; we are simply all together. Therefore, we do not need to wait for each other or ask one another what the other is doing to balance the level. We balance it together; we ask nothing because we know, we feel, what will be. We rise above time because I do not need to wait for the actions of the friends; I live with them in a single heart. Therefore, time disappears since there is no past, present, and future.

Past, present, and future exist between us only because of the transfer from one to another. If we all act from one point, then there is no time. It turns out we already are in eternity because time has disappeared.

However, if we do not work from the center of the group, all our work will be in a very long, roundabout way. Eventually, we will reach the goal someday, but we will stretch the time very much.

The level is the central point of the group, a single desire, single intention, single heart. In this place we can reveal the Creator: one against the other.

The level is not an air bubble in a liquid, like in a physical device, but the common heart of the group that belongs to everyone. Imagine that we are on a raft swaying on the waves. In the middle of the raft there is a level that we need to keep in balance. If we are able to align it, then in the central point that maintains balance despite the waves, our contact with the Creator occurs, His revelation.

On the next degree, it will become even more difficult to maintain balance: the waves will swell higher, the raft will become taller, two floors. However, this will make us unite even more tightly in one heart, and only in this way will we discover more and more opportunities to reveal the Creator and bring Him contentment.

The level is the common point for all of us, which came from the Creator. It is the Creator within us! The level will be in balance if we are all directed toward each other, each one wanting nothing for himself and being ready to give all of himself to the friends.1
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/19, Simchat Torah

1 Minute 51:30

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New Life 293 – An Integral Group, Part 2

New Life 293 – An Integral Group, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Every part of nature includes all of nature within it so it is possible to understand everything in an integral connection. A group is a dynamic system of communication between at least two people. First, group members learn general rules regarding how to connect in a new manner and why this is important. Then, they work through four stages including how to become like an embryo in the group, how to be like a mother’s womb for the others in the group, how to see all group members as equals, and, finally, how to create a sense of “we” and “one” in the center of the group. This type of group, with a quality connection between the members, can solve any problem and manage all aspects of life intelligently and sensitively.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 293 – An Integral Group, Part 2,” 1/21/14

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