Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Going Out To Establish Interpersonal Connections

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does a strong family, a strong home, mean for a Kabbalist?

Answer: A strong family is a family that lives in a strong environment, and since an environment like this is good for them, this is a strong home for them.

A home is a human environment, not the stone walls or physical structure. Nowadays, the concept of a home has gradually changed its meaning, and it is understood that stone walls no longer can protect us from anything whatsoever and don’t provide any sense of security. This is because security is found in the good relationships and incorporation into all the circles of human society.

Today society is the next circle for a strong family home, and for society, a wider circle is the nation, and so on.

This means that the concept of a home as a cave, tent, tabernacle, apartments, etc., no longer exists. A home is about going out to establish interpersonal connection.

So here all of the physical borders have been destroyed and only internal contact between people remains. Walls, seas, and oceans cannot separate us, as we must be connected. The development of the Internet clearly shows this to us.

Question: Can Europe, which opened the borders between the nations of the European Union, serve as an example for us?

Answer: Unfortunately, Europe took this step from the point of view of egoistic benefit for itself, to make more money, avoid war, and exploit the weaker nations.

The nations of the European Union connected only the banks. In their program, the integration of all of humanity and the mutual penetration of cultures with each other did not enter into the plan. Only today are they beginning to understand how far they are from integration.
[147254]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/23/14

Related Material:
From A Pastoral Family To A Spiritual Unit Of Society
A Look At The Family From The Height Of Global Nature
It’s A Long Way Back Home

Who Is To Blame And What We Can To Do About It

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In Israel Arabs are rioting. Are all of our efforts around the world don’t help?

Answer: I know only one thing; everything that happens is a result of our efforts. If the efforts are successful, one thing will happen; if they are less successful, something else will happen.

We are the only ones who determine what will happen to the nations of the world abroad and with our neighbors here. Everything is determined by the efforts that the people of Israel must make. Are they investing them? This is the problem. According to what is happening, we really haven’t been ready to direct events in the right way so that it will be good both for us and our neighbors.

One way or another, we determine this and nobody else. It isn’t Nasrallah, Ahmadinejad, Rohani, or Abu-Mazen. Why do we ascribe any actions to them? There isn’t and there won’t be anything from their side. Everything depends on you, you are the only one in the world who has freedom of choice. You determine everything that Israel encounters internally or externally. It is as if you are sitting in some machine and are running it. And nothing more.

We are always drawn to hear the news: what is happening in our country and abroad, what are the world leaders doing. But everything depends on you, so why should you know about them?

You need the news about which groups connected, which events happened, where we distributed materials, how many threads we have passed between Jews through television and the Internet so that they also will understand that everything depends upon them. This is what you need to know. This is the real news. After all, they don’t determine what will happen either today and tomorrow, nothing.

And so, when you are horrified about the Arab riots, know that you have a part in them.

Comment: The problems of Israel are not only the Arab riots. There is also corruption.

Answer: I am not talking only about security, but also about the economy, politics, health, and more. You alone determine everything, including all the phenomena of nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and human. Who are you? You are the people of Israel.

And who else are you? You are the Bnei Baruch group, which is the main culprit in what is happening. After all, the spiritual center of action is found here. Imagine that the whole world will get up and point at us, will discover who we are and say, “They are to blame for what is happening.”

Regarding corruption, you haven’t only involved in it, but have also awakened it. You have implemented the model of corruption in its root, and after that, someone realized it by traditional means.

Question: What must I do today to remove all the faults that I see in front of me?

Answer: Everything depends on you. You can build a wonderful life that will bring the Light that Reforms to the world. Do you want a good world that will return you to the good? This is what the Light does. So, attract the Light that will turn everything towards the good. Only you can do this, together with your friends.

Organize a strong event and connect, consolidate a shared idea, reach a common decision, do something. You are ready. Otherwise, neither you nor we will discover the power of evil that we feel today. If we feel its influence, it is designed to arouse us. And this testifies to our lack of work and our lack of precise correspondence to this force.

In other words, everything is simple. If there are riots in Israel, this means that we are constantly deteriorating backward. We have not completed our part, but instead, the opposite. The process demands much greater advancement, agility, and acceleration from us, and, on the contrary, we have slowed down. Otherwise, would we have discovered the problems as they are today?
[147525]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Nobel Prize Is Not The “Light To The Nations”
Becoming The Light For The Nations
War And Peace

Problem Number One

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe problem with education is the biggest problem in the world. It is thought that a human being is differentiated from animals specifically because of education. But If we compare how humans and animals raise their offspring, to our great sorrow, we don’t have anything to boast about or be proud of.

Animals educate their offspring until they learn how to live correctly, protect themselves, develop, and reproduce. While we educate our children in the same manner, when they mature, they withdraw and kill themselves.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the educational results of the present generation can only be seen twenty years later. And if, after twenty years, something begins to change, the future changes will be revealed and appear in another twenty years and even later.

According to the example of my generation, one could say that we didn’t devote any attention to sex education and mutual relationships between young people. They didn’t teach us how to educate children and how to build the right relationships in a family between parents and children, in society, or with our neighbors.

We didn’t learn the psychology of the person, or the society in which we live, or the psychology of the world. This negligence in education cannot replace intelligence.

Education is the most important thing in life, but we don’t get it in kindergarten, in school, or in universities. Even those who finish their studies in psychology remain undeveloped psychologically because their education is not appropriate to their age. This is in contrast to what usually happens with animals that develop and naturally connect with nature. Humans don’t have this.

Most adults don’t differ from children in any way. They don’t know how exactly what is necessary to behave, how to interact correctly with their surrounding environment or in the family. Men are not familiar with the psychology of women and women are not familiar with the psychology of men, so they don’t know how to communicate correctly between them.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says very simply that if we want to live normally, even simply, we must organize our material home life, and that first and foremost we must pay attention to education. And it is not important on what level of technological development we exist as the main thing for us is the good organization of human life and a normal, healthy family. This is what we are missing so much.

It is specifically on this that the wisdom of Kabbalah places an emphasis, in that it is explained that from a person must be made a social component included in a communications circle, to create the possibility of the right mutual cooperation with other people, and show in what manner he can come in contact with them so that human society will become one family.

Only in a case like this will we feel ourselves in safety, comfort, and pleasure and be able to comfortably pass on to our children the safe and comfortable world that we have prepared for them.
[147236]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/23/14

Related Material:
The Universal Wonder Drug
The Deficit Of Trust
The Clear Future Of City U

A Hero Among Heroes

laitman_572_03If the troubles in life are what drive us, if we are just looking for where to hide from them, then this is the very long and difficult way of suffering. In this case, I actually want to flee from what the Creator is doing to me. I am apparently fighting with Him, so certainly I won’t attain anything this way.

But if I don’t forget that I am specifically dealing with the Creator, then I react differently to any disturbances. I don’t eliminate them, instead I prepare myself so that through “equivalence of form” with the Light, through the bestowal that I radiate, I neutralize and transform every bad factor into a good one, and that is how I succeed.

In that way, success is being a “hero among heroes.” It is about a double overcoming: I transform my hater into a neutral state, after that I transform him into my partner. And about this it is said, “Who is a hero? It is someone who transforms his hater into his lover.”

From here we see that in our work we shouldn’t completely hold onto the same direction typical of ordinary life. I must make an effort to see that behind every person there is a force that activates him. I arrange a contact with this power through every object or entity. It is specifically that with which I am involved and not the person as he is.

How does one do this? I try to connect with a person so I can be closer to the force that motivates him. That is basically how I put all of humanity into a network that is connected to me and I discover the collective power, the Creator, the Infinite Light that is revealed in the entire Malchut, all in the same Kli, which I ultimately combine with me.

The beginning of the way, the ascent on the spiritual ladder, and the final state are all hidden in this yearning. So in everything that we go through, everything that we discover, we must only keep this direction. In every situation, in every detail that appears in front of me and generally in reality that singular, good and beneficent power is concealed.

I cannot keep this direction by myself. But by working with my group of ten and in relation to it, it molds in me this approach of “there is none else beside Him” and the “good who does good,” and I advance towards revelation.

And in addition to this, it is self-evident that we must go out to disseminate because we need to discover the Creator in all of reality, meaning, to discover Him in His entirety.

And this is our work, our advancement.
[147107]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/1/14, Lesson #3

Related Material:
On The Threshold Of A Grand Event
It Is A Great Honor To Be In The Company Of Such Great People
Can We Defend Ourselves Against The Creator?

The Resolution Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is very important to check yourself: “What worries me?” Every moment that I feel alive and well, I am full of worries. So what do I worry about?

Am I worried about my own well-being, tranquility, achievement, what will make me happier, peace and quiet, security, food, and family welfare?

Or am I worried about friends, like a mother with a baby, searching for what they are missing and what should be done for them?  Do I worry about the group like a faithful nanny? This means I must check the intention of my worries.

The whole of creation gradually descended down to our world in which we exist in physical form and in the most inferior situation. We feel as if we are detached from the spiritual world, when in fact that can’t happen. So this world is called the imaginary world.

We suppose we exist in a vast world filled with lots of physical objects. However, in fact, it is all spiritual, but we don’t recognize or feel this.

So it is very important to check what I am worried about at every moment. Entering the spiritual world means continuing to be concerned about what is essential and vital in life: food, sleep, health, money, and relationships with people, but subconsciously, I am always troubled by the thought of how to organize the group so that it will become the Shechina (divinity), a place for discovering the Creator.

I must get used to being happy about my concern for the group. If I stop worrying about it, then I am worried about why am I not concerned about the friends. This must become habitual. In our world, habit becomes second nature.

Suppose that they give me a baby who is a stranger for whom I have no feelings. But I have no choice; I am compelled to worry about him day after day. I begin to be concerned about him and he becomes important for me. Ultimately, I begin to think about him all the time. It is the same thing in relation to the group. We must attain this state that is possible thanks only to determination and constantly returning to my thoughts about the group.

And after all these nice plans about taking care of the group, about my supporting it, attracting Light into it, about the Creator and giving Him satisfaction, I must ask myself, where He is and where I am subconsciously. I must always clarify what I am doing all this for. Certainly I hope to receive some reward, but what exactly?

It could be that in the meantime, I am not ready to imagine a reward for myself. It could be that I understand that afterward, for my effort I will demand control, respect, and transcendence of life and death, something tangible and very important for me. And here I must examine what is more important for me: Is it my reward or the ability to give satisfaction to the friends and the Creator?

Can I forego the reward, or at least part of it? And when I forego a reward, won’t I replace it with something else other than fame and the pursuit of honor?

What does it mean to give pleasure to the Creator? By what means can I do this and with which desires do I feel it? Through what will I feel that the Creator gets pleasure from me? It is necessary to try to separate my desires and perception into as many parts as possible and see how to work with them. The more parameters that I have, the more I will develop my perception.

This is like pixels on a computer screen that determine its resolution: In one square centimeter there can be two hundred pixels, there could be a thousand, or there could be ten thousand. The more points there are, the better and clearer the picture becomes.

The same thing happens also happens with our desires. The more we scrutinize them, the closer we come to the truth, to true perception.
[147091]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson #4

Related Material:
Two-Sided Work
Be Drawn To Love
Turning To The Group Is Turning To The Light

Do Not Allow Another Catastrophe On A Universal Scale, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why, when one hears that there is no one else besides the Creator, the first thing he thinks about is all this evil that occurred in the world: wars, the Holocaust that claimed millions of lives?

Answer: A person does not agree with the fact that there is no one else besides the Creator because it seems that it eliminates the person himself, including his existence. He does not understand what it is all about.

To this day, people do not agree with the way the upper governance treats the people of Israel, the group that seeks “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-Kel), which Abraham organized as one people. Even today, people still cry about this disaster.

But it would be more correct to transform all the memory of the catastrophe into the basis for correction. The Holocaust Museum and Memorial should show why it occurred, from where this terrible fault came, and what it should teach us. It is meant to teach us how we can rise out of this affliction.

In place of the catastrophe, we can grow a new attitude of the people of Israel to the Creator that is more mature and purposeful. Just tears and vows that it will never happen again will not protect us from future disasters. At that time we could not prevent the disaster, and so we cannot today.

What can be done in order to be able to influence events and not allow this to happen again? How can we learn from the past and find the strength that allows us henceforth to act so that it actually never happens again? Today we must correct the damage that we were not able to eliminate in the days of the catastrophe. Therefore, it took place in order to make corrections by the path of suffering.

The oneness of the upper governance is a very hard fact, which is not accepted by an ordinary person with all the troubles and tragedies of this life he has to go through. People do not understand how it is possible that the Creator treated the nation of Israel so badly, which was the group “aspiring straight to the Creator,” guiding them through such suffering.

It is enough to look at the path that the people of Israel went through, at all the suffering experienced by us during the 2,000 years of exile. Why did this happen? What was our mistake and why haven’t we learned from it? Why to this day, don’t we want to draw conclusions? Indeed, with anti-Semitism growing day by day, today there might be a much worse catastrophe than the one that occurred in Europe 70 years ago.

This is a very painful subject, but we have to discuss it. There is no way out, and we have to look at what happened in terms of the purpose of creation and the forces acting in nature. Our sorrow for the perished is only the beginning step towards production of a practical action through correct, broad education for the people of Israel and the whole world.

This education should show people what terrible forces could be revealed if we do not turn them into good forces. The choice is in our hands! We ourselves choose who will take power over us: the evil force or the force of good, Pharaoh/egoism, or the Creator/bestowal; it must be one of the two.

We should explain this in television programs, workshops, and discussions. This applies not only to the Jews. Today, we have advanced so much that the whole world has to be included in the correction. That is why the upper governance begins to treat the world in the same way as it earlier treated the people of Israel.

In the past, the upper governance demanded only the people of Israel to come closer to bestowal, but now this is demanded from the whole world. Thus, the entire world is on the threshold of great suffering: the war of Gog and Magog, the third world war that was described by the prophets, to a multitude of problems and misfortunes. And all this could happen because the world is not advancing on the correct path.

Of course, the people of Israel will suffer the most because it has to pass the Light to the rest. But the whole world will also be involved in this disaster. It will not be like before, being a catastrophe only of the Jewish people. Riots, problems, and revolutions will occur in any location in the world. We can already see the first stirring of conflicts, which are destined to explode in the future and envelope the whole earth.
[147266]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

Related Material:
The Holocaust: The Causes And The Motivating Forces
We Should Prefer Internality
If There Is No Communication, There Is No Peace

The One Who Sets Everything In Motion

Dr. Michael LaitmanDuring our study we first discover the actions of our ego in every state. This is called another god. It is when I think that I do things by myself and that my life is determined by others such as world leaders who keep law and order, those who are close to me, those who are distant, friends, and foes. In short, I see many operating factors, both positive and negative.

Each time I grow stronger I see that it isn’t so. I simply look at what is going on as wrong and attribute those actions to those around me. But when the situation clears up, I see that the Creator sets them in motion and that they actually don’t understand what is going on. He is the only one who operates them in order to influence me. Thus, I once again discover that there is none else besides Him.

That’s the way it is in every state. Each time I eventually discover that there is no other force before me but Him.

This also applies to me: Now it seems that I am exerting myself, acting or doing something, arranging my connection with others and that I am independent in my thoughts and desires, but it is all a lie. The Creator governs everything.

Why do we see a different picture? It is so that we will be able to correct the vessel, our desires, and our ability to perceive and see that there is none else besides Him and that only He operates in reality.

Where do I reveal that? In the states, desires, and thoughts that now make me feel confident in knowing that we are all independent. It is with regard to this notion that it is written: “as the advantage of the Light out of the darkness.” The more I attribute more definite and certain independence to different factors, the more clearly I eventually discover that there is none else beside Him.

By undergoing different changes that guide me for and against the uniqueness of the Creator, I eventually begin to discover Him, not only in different situations, but also in the intensity, in the thickness (Aviut), of my desire, not only to its width, but also to its depth. I see increasingly how it operates on me through every external detail.

Then it turns out that instead of the friends and the group, I am dealing with the Creator. But that doesn’t mean that I should disrespect them. On the contrary, in the meantime, they have attained equivalence of form and so I relate to them just as I relate to the Creator. Therefore it says: “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”

It turns out that in all the troubles and contradictions, and in all my quests for the source of this life of sorrow, I have been brought to the one and only source and I see that it is actually the Creator who presents this whole reality to me. Previously, the force against it confused me by showing me that others are to blame for everything that happens, including me, since I made so many efforts. Now it turns out that only the Light operates both for and against.

I, on the other hand, am only a spectator looking at God’s work, at the only force that operates in all of reality.
[147103]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson #3

 Related Material:
Unlimited Access To The Computer Of The Creator
Healing The Point Of Disconnection
There Is None Else Besides Him: The Flirting Of Lovers

The Only Evil Person In The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom, Shamati, 1, “There Is None Else Beside Him”: And as much as he overcomes, he always sees how he is farther from holiness than others, who feel that they are one with the Creator.

But he, on the other hand, always has complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the Creator’s behavior, and how He behaves toward him. This pains him. Why is he not one with the Creator? Finally, he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness whatsoever.

I see that all my intentions and my desires are in order to receive. I want to connect to the friends and reveal the Creator among them in order to bestow unto Him, but after all my attempts, I discover that it isn’t my nature at all.

Although he occasionally receives awakening from Above, which momentarily revives him, but soon after he falls into the place of baseness.

This means that I perceive my ascents and descents judging by to what extent I worry about the Creator through the group and through which He will be revealed, and to what extent I yearn to see in all that there is none else beside Him and that He is good that does good. I discover corresponding attributes in the group, but I understand that I cannot participate in it by myself.

It turns out that there is no one to blame but me. Ordinary people on the street are totally managed by the Creator in a natural instinctive manner. Therefore, they are not responsible for anything and are absolute righteous since they only carry out the Creator’s orders without any participation on their part.

The friends that I see invest all their powers in order to bestow and the only evil person in the world, who wants to exit his ego but cannot do so, is me. It turns out that the general state of the vessel, of the general soul, depends only on me.

Thus, the Creator’s state depends on the outcome of my efforts. The Creator can enjoy the created beings and be revealed to them only if I add my penny. Without that, the Creator cannot be content and this is my fault!

A man must always try and cleave to the Creator; namely, that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, that even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, he should not leave His domain, namely, that there is another authority which prevents him from entering holiness, and which can bring benefit or harm.

That is, he must not think that there is the force of the Sitra Achra (Other Side), which does not allow a person to do good deeds and follow God’s ways. Rather, all is done by the Creator.

On the one hand, we have to accept all the actions we undergo. There is only one thing I cannot accept: the fact that I cannot justify the Creator in all these actions and thank and praise Him. This is the only thing that hurts.

Of course, I don’t feel sorry for myself but for the fact that I cannot add my missing part, my penny, to the whole general vessel in order  that the Creator will be able to be revealed within it and to enjoy it.
[147171]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

Related Material:
There Is None Else Beside Him
The World Where “There Is None Else Besides Him”
Cursory Thoughts On Shamati, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Love Neutralizes The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe convention is over and we are about to return to our groups in order to connect with other people. We are about to go outside this big hall and separate from our group of ten.

Of course, we should keep in touch with them, but we should see that anything that is added to my group of ten or what it lacks when I go back home is calculated from Above and this is actually what I should work with.

The Creator has given us such conditions on purpose and I should not feel sorry that I am not next to the same small group that I have grown so accustomed to for the last few days and with whom I want to stay forever. No! I am going to work with the whole world and with my local group.

We should attain a state in which there are several people I can work with everywhere, whether virtually or physically. There can be different groups of ten in the morning, at midday, and in the evening. This is only the beginning and we stick to a certain group of ten in order to feel that there we can find an answer, warmth, closeness, and mutual understanding.

But we can feel the same almost immediately in any other group. If I am surrounded by friends from all over the world who are advancing towards one goal, I can sit in any group and immediately feel that these are the same friends.

It makes no difference whether I know these people well or whether I don’t know them at all in the corporeal world. If we have a common goal, I can connect to them as if I have known them for years. It makes no difference at all how well we have known each other previously.

It is very important to express love to all the friends, so that every person in the group, in the group of ten, will feel that he is loved. The feeling of love neutralizes the ego if a person wishes to annul his ego. This is because the love of the friends evokes in me such a peaceful feeling that I cease worrying about myself.

Then I can ascend above my ego! I am free of worrying about myself and so I can bestow and give my love as a present to others because I no longer have to think about myself.

It is a very important point. We can agree that we will intentionally show our love to one of the friends and thus free him from his troubles and worries.Try it and see and how well it works, even if we don’t work that way on purpose with regard to one of the friends, each of us should still feel that the group worries about him.
[147164]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Don’t Let Yourself Cool Down
Friends Who Will Never Disappoint You
Everything Is Within The Group Of Ten

A Group Of Ten As A Tool For Adhesion

laitman_934If you want to explore the upper force, the wisdom of Kabbalah says that you must create a tool appropriate for this. This is just like scientists who create measuring instruments: microscopes, telescopes, particle accelerators, and the like. But they are appropriate only for physical substances. So how can we explore the force that works within us, in our essence?

For this the Kabbalists recommend building a structure of ten people (Minyan) who try to create complete interconnection between them. They stabilize the characteristic of Light in their environment, whether they are ready for this or not, by wanting to make a single whole of themselves above their egos.

Such a structure already contains two forces within it: our natural egoistic force and the general force of bestowal, meaning the Creator. And the calculation here is simple: The more we overcome the force of separation with the help of the power of unification, to this degree we match, resemble, and equalize with the Upper Light.

Even when bestowal rises to a value of one percent, to that degree we resemble the Light and feel it. We feel it to the degree that the desire to bestow dominates the desire to receive.

If we try making an effort, in spite of our inability to overcome our egoistic desire, we begin to pay attention to where there is a shortcoming, how weak we still are, why we don’t succeed. And then a scream, a request, a prayer develops in us for the Light to help us, give us strength, and then we connect. Certainly we don’t have the power to connect on our own. It comes only from the Light.

That is how we advance: The Light acts and influences us according to our request; we overcome our desire to receive, absorb more of the desire to bestow; we connect between us more strongly again and again…. It is written about this: (Baba Batra 9b) “A penny and another penny accumulate into a great sum.”

And then the moment comes when we truly can unite. Then everyone feels how he disappears into the common connection between us.  “I” and the “friends” no longer exist; all merge into one. And at the moment in this state of “togetherness,” we feel fulfillment, the Upper Light, the Creator dwelling among us.

And then we can investigate Him. In other words, we have built and activated a device called a “group,” a “group of ten,” (a Minyan); and we can now advance forward by stabilizing ourselves more and more in various forms of connection. And the Creator, in accordance with our mutual connection, will be revealed more and more.

Through its influence, the Light will also awaken us to deeper and deeper layers of ego. We feel resistance, descent, and all kinds of disturbances, that makes it possible for us to turn towards the Upper Light with even greater force so that it will come and acquire the power for us to see our defects and the methods for their correction.

This is the way, 125 levels, that by ascending through them we ultimately reach “equivalence of form” with the Creator. And in this way we discover how important the characteristics of fear and anxiety are to us. After all, it is only concern and fear, “Am I capable of bestowal?” which pushes us forward.
[147099]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/1/14, Lesson #3

Related Material:
A Whole Group Of Ten
A Group And Groups Of Ten
Work With Groups Of Ten: A Permanent Threshold Of Comprehension