Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

The Sign Of Spiritual Connection

laitman_232.06Question: When we watch some programs, we become involved with them and feel the stream of thoughts and feelings. This is already a level of connection.

Why, if I feel the thoughts and desires of others within me, is this a sign of spiritual connection?

Answer: A sign of spiritual connection can only be when I feel rejection from my friends and at the same time I pray for connection between us. Only these two opposing tendencies in me indicate spiritual elevation.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 8/18/19

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Cancel Self-Love

laitman_938.02Rabash, Article No 6, 1984, “Love of Friends (2)” Everyone should think that he has come to the group to cancel his self love, that is, he should not think about how he can fulfill his desire, but as much as possible think only about love for his friends—because only through it he can acquire the desire and need for the new property—the desire to give.

And from love of friends, one can come to love of the Creator, to desire to give contentment to the Creator.

We must not forget that precisely this is what we should think about all the time and aim all our aspirations toward. No matter how much it is opposite to our nature, we still have to position ourselves this way.

I am aimed at rising above my self love for the love of friends because through such an attitude toward them I begin to perceive the Creator, the upper world, the property of bestowal, I rise above my nature. It is the exact condition, that lever, which can lift me.

At first, these are, in general, selfish desires: I want to rise, I want to find, I want. If I need to love another for this, then I am ready. Good. There is nothing to be done if it is necessary.

Then, when we work with this, I suddenly begin to feel that I do not need anything else. I do not even need myself. If there is such a property as bestowal, if there is such a state called the Creator, that is all, that is enough for me, I do not even need to exist.

A person feels the influence of the upper light so much that he does not even ask for himself; on the contrary, he is ready to completely annul himself, to not exist. This is how the next stage of our development begins.

To the extent of the similarity to the Creator—to give Him pleasure just as the Creator wants to give us pleasure—we gain the Creator’s quality, merge with Him, and rise to His level.

There are two stages here. We can acquire a new property, a desire to give, only by working with friends. And only then do we we gain the desire to give pleasure to the Creator, and thus rise to similarity with Him.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1

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How Not To Be An Idol Worshiper

laitman_938.07Question: There is a certain duality: on one hand, uniting with the Creator, on the other hand, connecting with friends.

I can’t manage to put an equal sign between these concepts. I have the feeling I am either with my friends or I am with the Creator. Is this some kind of idolatry and at the same time it carries you there?

Answer: This is true. Indeed, if your egoism draws you to the Creator, it is idol worshiping. It seems to the ego that it can be filled there. It wants you to relate to the Creator in this way: I want the Creator, I love the Creator, I will be filled with Him, unite, I will do everything for Him, we will succeed with Him.

Remark: Yes, but the Creator is in my friends, He is behind them, He is in this connection. But I only understand this, and very rarely feel it.

My Comment: That is your problem.

Question: Can we solve this together?

Answer: No, you will solve this problem with your ten and with the Creator. There is no other way.

Question: What do I personally need to add to my ten so that I can finally stop focusing on this “mythical figure”?

Answer: Explain to them that the Creator is attained only within the ten itself. Otherwise, you will not find Him, otherwise it will be idol worshiping. This is called “creating an idol,” some statue.

Only within the ten, only in their right relations does the general image of bestowal between friends, called the Creator, manifest itself. Therefore, the Creator says: “You have created Me.” Indeed, with the help of the correct mutual relationship with each other, we create an image of the Creator. And before that, He does not exist. Therefore, the Creator is called Boreh: Bo u-Reh (Come and See).
From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “How Can I Affect the Society,” Lesson 3
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A Special Illumination Through The Group

laitman_962.1The group is the face of the Creator, His image. He has no other image but “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” Therefore, there is: “Me, the group, and the Creator”—three components that connect into one. Or we can say that behind each friend is the Creator. The same Creator that I wish to see, I must build in my relations with my friends.

To advance to the Creator, I need to perform a completely different action to build His image, as I imagine it, in my relations with my friends. Let’s check if I identify the image of the Creator in the group or not? Do I organize the group according to the image of the Creator that I imagine? Do we connect to each other to build the image of the Creator in our relations?

It is said: “You have made Me.” It is as if I take clay or play dough and form the image of the Creator in the relationship with friends. From above downward, the Creator creates a person, and from below upward, a person creates the Creator.1

The light that leads to the connection with the Creator is primary. It is small, weak, but close. And the light that gives connection to the group is strong, multifaceted, powerful. They differ like an audio signal transmitting only voice in comparison with a video signal transmitting a complete picture with a lot of data.

First, the Creator awakens me with a thin ray in which there is nothing but this brief awakening. But through the group, a window through which I can reveal all of reality until the end of correction opens for me because the group represents the image of the Creator.

Final correction means that we expand our Kli of perception so that it contains the entire manifestation of the Creator, all His infinite bestowal. That is, I must discover a limitless connection in the ten, and this will be the final correction.

If I aspire to the Creator without a ten, then this is still an egoistic awakening due to the fact that the Creator excites me. Still, I already see that one should not drown in one’s egoism, but I supposedly want to find a desire belonging to the Creator. This is still an egoistic attitude but already a step forward.

If I want to connect with the Creator through the group, it means that a special illumination comes to me through it. Maybe I still do not understand this, but subconsciously I feel and begin to reach for the group. Therefore, the group becomes important to me.

The desire for the group suggests that a person receives illumination through it. I want to cling to the Creator so I cling to the group, which for me acquires the importance of the Creator.

To the extent that I imagine the Creator within the group and the group brings itself to be in equivalence of form with the Creator, to that extent I am in adhesion with both of them and really find the Creator in the group. This means that the vessel and the light become equal and the light begins to clothe itself inside the desire.2
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/19, Preparation to the Europe Convention

1 Minute 20:00
2 Minute 43:25

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Connection Based On Concessions

laitman_939.01Question: What is a connection based on concessions?

Answer: This is when I am ready to give way to my friends in everything in order to unite with them because without it I would have no opportunity to influence my fate, to influence the Creator, who is the master of my destiny.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1

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Descents As Means Of Advancement

Laitman_125Question: Do you say that we need to try to feel the descents together?

Answer: There are descents and ascents that we feel together and there are individual ones.

Question: What does it mean to feel a state of descent as a whole group?

Answer: It depends on who interprets the descent.

I interpret it as disconnection from the Creator, from the group, that is, from moving forward. For example, I can feel a certain heaviness, but I still cannot determine that it was given to me for my advancement; I am just immersed in it.

When I begin to perceive this heaviness as an instrument of moving forward, then it becomes my instrument of advancement. Now I work with it with joy, realizing that thanks to it I will advance.

When we have a common goal, common actions, and common life, then in some things we have common ascents and descents, and in some things individual ones. We must use the fact that we can work together and thus achieve common results.

Here I more or less understand the state of my friends and I must help them, take part in it. For example, it is very important for us to be inspired before a congress, talk about the importance of the goal, the importance of our gatherings, the importance of the congress, the importance of the lessons. We must collect all this among ourselves and inspire each other.

Thus, a common field will arise: the Creator will not manifest itself in any personal sensation, but in the general field. This is very important because His manifestation can only happen when we are already connected in the ten, in some form of a common Kli (vessel).
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/13/19

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How To Solve A Problem Correctly?

laitman_530Question: How is a joint decision on a corporeal problem made?

Answer: Suppose we decided in the group that we should construct a building. Based on our vision, from our connection in the ten, we draw all the conditions of the project: what should this building be like, why do we need it, etc.

By the way, at one time, in an article about the Third Temple, Ramchal described how he sees it and even made a drawing. That was 600 years ago. I hope that in our time, we will soon be able to begin its implementation. Although we are not at the level of Ramchal, but as far as we can understand the drawing, as far as we can read it, we will implement it.

Question: But still, let’s say we decided to build a center somewhere. You think that it should be in one city, I think in another, the third one thinks that it should be a different size in general. What should we do? Everyone has their own opinion. How is the decision made in Kabbalah?

Is there a voting method when a decision is made either by a majority vote or unanimously?

Answer: Not unanimously but in full conjunction with each other.

Question: Should I ignore my opinion?

Answer: No. If we are talking about a Kabbalistic group, then first of all we must solve the problem of the connection between us so that we unite into one common whole, when all our feelings, qualities, and thoughts are united in one system, and in this system, we begin to solve everything.

Indeed, in it, we become similar to the Creator, similar to a single force in which all opposites are joined together, mutually complementing each other. Then our problem will be solved correctly, in mutual satisfaction, as the power of the Creator will be in it, absolute equivalence and balance with nature.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/25/18

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The Black Point Is The Germ Of The Soul

laitman_622.02In order to begin expanding the point in the heart, to feel all kinds of qualities in it, its components, we are gathering together. A very great effort must be made, contrary to my inclination, to surrender to the connection between us, when I do not want to feel myself, but I want to feel the friends. This is the way I develop the point in the heart. I want to feel them instead of myself.

If we act in this way, then through annulling ourselves and attracting the qualities of the friends, we will begin to feel the upper world. One who wants to know the meaning of life must concentrate their attention on the black point in their heart.

The heart is called our desires, and the black point is the desire that I absolutely have no need for. It exists in me, I intellectually understand what the quality of bestowal means, but I do not want to implement it or to feel it within me. Therefore, our movement toward spirituality means that in spite of my rejection of the black point, from the quality of bestowal, despite the rejection between us, we are approaching each other.

Try to feel this rapprochement. The bigger the rejection between us, the more I nevertheless try to push myself toward others—to the friends, strangers, and loved ones, no matter to whom.

I will then begin to feel this point as the beginning of my spiritual Kli (vessel), the sensory organ. This is when it turns within me into an opportunity to feel the upper state, which is inverse to mine. I begin to reveal the inverse world. This is the spiritual world.

Expanding, in spite of myself, this reversal of my point in which I reject any rapprochement with the friends, I create a place where I begin to feel spiritual qualities and spiritual actions. This point then becomes the germ of my soul, my quality of bestowal, quality of connection with others, in which I begin to feel the Creator.

It should then become clear how these actions are contrary to our nature, repel us, how unbelievably difficult it is to imagine the quality of attraction to others, both myself to them or them to me, as if I need to tear something within me.

We cannot do anything about it, we only need to ask. Yet, our request can lead us to success when we attract the upper force, the upper light. Then, the point in the heart begins to develop like a plant from a seed. The volume, area, all kinds of qualities appear in it and it becomes an embryo of our soul. Just as a person develops from a drop of semen, so does the development of the soul.

This initial point exists in every one of us; it came from the shattering of the common soul that was broken specifically so we can restore it and thus acquire the qualities of the spiritual world, the qualities of the Creator. We must bring ourselves to this action.
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From the World Kabbalah Convention in Moldova 9/5/19, Lesson 0

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Bring Light To The World

laitman_938.04Rabash, “What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?”: The thing is that we have to know that all of the souls extend from the soul of Adam HaRishon. He is called Adam HaRishon, which means the first man. A man is called the collection of all egoistic qualities into a single altruistic one. After Adam sinned, that is, fell from the quality of bestowal and love into the quality of reception, his soul, his structure, his desire was divided.

There are no bodies, there are only desires. Therefore, his desire, which was one big common light, shattered into a large number of small desires, each of which contains a microdose of light. We have to connect these microdoses together by directing our desires to one big, common desire.

This is our work of correction. At that, it is not only in collecting the particles into which the light shattered, but also in connecting them into a big force. Therefore, our work is divided into a great number of parts of the broken Kli (vessel) of Adam and into the sequence in which we assemble this single common desire called “Adam.”

This work takes a lot of time because we cannot do it in one single effort. Therefore, we should understand that each of us requires an environment in order to advance.

In principle, in all cases in life, I can solve most of my problems only with the help of the environment. I am already beginning to understand the condition that the shattering of the Kli dictates me to constantly be with my own kind who are yearning for connection. Then we can influence each other, act, and help each other both physically and internally.

Our desires, the lights that fill us, although they are still minuscule, nevertheless, their microdoses influence each other and thus, we can support and help each other. Our advancement is in this.

This is why connection is of utmost importance. Trying all the time to see in others an example of what else I can do, what else I can learn from everyone, from anyone, in any way—from their longings and their actions for connection. This is considered as one person helping another.

When we gather, we can learn both virtually and physically, but nothing can replace such a big gathering as a convention because only in such massive gatherings can people influence each other.

They should help each other, demonstrate how much they yearn for connection. There is no need to demonstrate familiarity, hugs, slaps, and pats. We must try to convey to each other the yearning of our hearts. That is primary. Together we should try to convince the Creator that we are already worthy for Him to unite us.

Such a persistent request from each heart to other hearts and through their connection to the Creator is most important. We will then begin to feel that we really are in the great upper light.

This can only be achieved at large conventions. Of course, you can come to this in a group, and in small meetings, but when such a mass of people come, already familiar with each other, it is really a great force. There is nothing like it in the world. Moreover, the world is waiting, subconsciously, unconsciously, but it is waiting for us to bring light to it, to bring the upper force closer.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1

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Two Stages Toward The Goal

laitman_942In principle, all our actions and our entire path consist of two stages. The first is to love your friend as yourself. When this is achieved, we proceed to the second stage: love the Creator as you love your friend, your group.

One stage transforms into the other. It cannot be otherwise: love your friend as yourself, love the Creator as you love your friend. There are no other alternatives. This is what spiritual development consists of; it is completely different, opposite to our nature.

When a person encounters such a condition, he must shake himself well more than once in order to confront the fact that connection with others must occur outside of and above himself. In order to do so, a upper light must come and create these conditions.

I can demand it by being inspired by my friends. Playing between us, we can create among us such a desire: jealousy, envy, anything. The main thing is to understand that I must achieve this; otherwise, I will remain an animal in our world, end my life like all animals, and nothing else will remain.

Only envy, jealousy, and a desire for honor lead a person from his animal state to the next, the highest one.

We must understand that only our serious decision to master the spiritual state at any cost, at the cost of breaking up with our egoistic life, with our egoistic attitude to the world, will give us the opportunity to rise, and to love our neighbor as ourselves and to love the Creator as our neighbor are two stages by which we must reach our goal.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1

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