Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Tense Unity Is Invigorating Along The Spiritual Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the group is dealing with several projects simultaneously there may be arguments, resentment, and competition among the friends.

Answer: This is natural. The same thing happens here. Sometimes we have to postpone and even cancel a certain project and work on another instead.

There is nothing we can do about it. We are living in a rapidly changing world. Some of our projects take a long time to process and often we cannot complete them the way they should be done. Suddenly something urgent comes up and then we have to leave what we were working on for a month or two or look for people who can finish the project or support it until we can get back to it.

In such a small family that is growing so fast there are always different problems that need to be resolved. Don’t think that there will be an end to this. There will be more and more problems and the intensity of our work will grow accordingly. We have to quickly build up our experience in working externally with the wider circles of society.

We mustn’t forget that all of this is important for the group to grow stronger and to constantly advance towards stronger internal unity. Tension in the unity is an indicator that we are on the right track, because as soon as we reach a clear and evident unity, we will discover the Creator in it.
[119124]
From a Talk About the Dissemination 10/17/13

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The Red Letter Day?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How far are we from the first spiritual degree? Can we measure this?

Answer: The fact is that our world group is not quite homogeneous. The concept of “we” is very vague, as a cloud.

I think that the central part of the world group that systematically, as far as the external circumstances allow, engages in the studies, internal work in the group, and dissemination, has now come to the state where within a year it will begin to reveal a clear interaction with the upper force.

In line with this, we will have ups and downs. The higher we rise, the stronger descents we will have, and to the extent we can overcome them, we will succeed.

You asked me a question, which is not in my power to answer. This is the freedom of will; moreover, the freedom of will of a great number of people. Precisely, your conscious collective decision in mutual support, in mutual responsibility, will decide when you are able to reveal the upper world. Everything depends only on you!

Indeed, it is not a date on the calendar. When you create the required tension between yourselves, then you will succeed. But I think that at the pace in which we are growing today, this should happen within six to twelve months, or maybe even sooner. However, the revelation relates only to those who are engaged in serious internal work, and the rest will join as they become included into it.

The group that will feel the upper world (and some people are already there), increasingly more strongly, entering into communication with the upper force, feeling a new dimension, rising above the level of their material existence, and will start seeing themselves and this world the way we see pets that live next to us. This is the way people will look at their animal component relative to their spiritual component that is being born in them. I think this will happen quickly.

But I repeat once again, it all depends on how much a person under the influence of the internal force, the so-called Upper Light, will develop spiritual sensory organs in himself.
[119613]
From the Convention in Bulgaria 01/11/2013, Lesson 1

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An X-Ray Of The Integral World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I do not know if I receive a blow because of a certain lack of correction if I live in an integral world. Maybe I strayed along the path and in this way the Creator brings me back to it, or perhaps it is just the external problems of the entire generation. So, how can a person check himself to make sure that he works correctly along the way?

Answer: The integral world is a reflection of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). We are already in Ein Sof, but it is concealed from us. So, we to orient ourselves to Ein Sof since, as it is said, “The end of the action is in the initial thought.” This means that I must understand that I see a shattered reality before me since this is how I feel it in my senses. But, in fact, it is one reality since there is only one soul filled with one Light, and one force that sustains all this in perfect unity.

So, how can I feel this by my own efforts every moment of my life?

A person is given small problems to deal with since he can. There are greater global problems that he cannot solve at the moment.

It is as if I must be X-rayed. I stand in front of the machine, get x-rayed, and the picture is shown to me. I see stars and planets in it, and then the earth and different creatures on the surface of the earth: the still nature, vegetation, animals, and people. Somewhere in the distances, there are stars and galaxies that are exploding. The earth is burning from within, and we are living on its thin crust, thinly covered with vegetation like hair on a head. There are animals and tiny people walking on its surface, and I see all of that in the X-ray.

However, I am told not to worry about the whole big picture! I am told to leave all the stars and earth with its vegetation, and to begin focusing on what is in my power to correct now.

So, I narrow down my vision and stop worrying about the entire world since I don’t have the tools to correct it anyway. There is no point in just sitting and crying desperately about what is happening somewhere in Honolulu.

So, first, I am given a group of ten people because I cannot perceive more than ten people in my mind. I must focus on this group of ten and establish my attitude toward the entire world as I see it in the X-ray’s picture. However, through this group of ten, I can remain focused on them. I can relate to everything else correctly according to my connection with them, to what happens outside the boundaries of the group.

I must believe that, if I establish the right attitude inside the group, it will be enough for me to establish a correct attitude toward the entire world. If people suddenly come complaining to me that I didn’t take care of a distant Zulu tribe at the other end of the world, I will answer that I couldn’t since I looked at the entire world through the group. I suggest that they look through that lens in order to find that out! They should come, look, and see that I really couldn’t do anything, and then they would say that I am not guilty of anything.

Thus, I constantly look at reality through the group. If I problems come to me through a whole group, then perhaps they involve all of humanity or the entire planet, but I must know that they were revealed to me because I can keep them in focus because of my connection with the group. They already are incorporated in the picture that I see in the lens that focuses my sight. This means that such an event is already in my sight.

This is how I advance. In the meantime, I cannot encompass the entire world and worry about everything. I only know one thing: If I worry about what I have to do according to my level, it will be my positive effect on reality. This is all I can do, and I am not required to do more, just as a small child is asked to do only what he can, according to his age.
[119248]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Shamati #70, “With A Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out“

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Paving The Road Is Not The Same As Taking It

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Humanity is drawing further away from nature as it evolves, losing the last traces of our perception of the laws of this one mechanism. What will happen next?

Answer: In contrast to the level of the speaking, the animate level doesn’t evolve by acquiring a new level of a mind and feeling by itself. No, we have to take care of this. The sages say that the nations of the world will carry the children of Israel on their shoulders and bring them to where they will build the Temple. This means that it’s about AHP joining GE, and there is no other way it can join GE.

Therefore, it says that the nations of the world will learn the Torah all at one time. They have no power to clarify things and this is the only way they can join GE. It doesn’t mean that their fate in our world is to participate passively, but they will be passive in spirituality. This is how they will work. We have the intention and they carry it out.

Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine how all the people in the world will attain the Creator, especially when the descendants of the children of Israel don’t want it. We don’t take into account and don’t understand that their correction will take place all at once. The moment you learn to raise their request (MAN) to your level and from there to the upper AVI, to the Creator, then at that moment they will receive the Light through you and everything will immediately work out for them. They don’t need to pave the road by themselves. Instead the Light will develop the emotional and mental system in them that is aimed only at being more and more dependent on us.

This is, in fact, what will be revealed in their understanding and their attainment: the need to depend on the children of Israel. Similarly, we also discover in our understanding and attainment that we have to be more dependent on the connection with the group and with the Creator.

Thus, the whole world, besides us, will be corrected easily by a relatively passive connection in workshops and other events. That is enough. We are the ones who have to do the serious work.
[119340]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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To Guarantee The Friend’s Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What responsibility must we take for each other?

Answer: There are hardships in life when a person finds himself penniless and friendless, and there is no one to turn to. Imagine you are helpless and completely dependent on others, like the miners buried underground. If somebody doesn’t take care of you from above, you are doomed.

That is what we must feel: desperate dependence on the friends. Without them, we will neither survive nor reach the goal, nor will we be able to sustain ourselves. It comes down to a corporeal, beastly fear that forces a person to value Arvut (mutual guarantee).

A new system is being revealed to us in which we totally depend on each other. What then are we guaranteed? We guarantee oxygen and everything that sustains life.

This feeling depends on to what extent everyone is trying to get to know it. Afterwards, while ascending the spiritual rungs, we will feel this dependence down to the very bones and in every breath we take, like scuba divers who have one oxygen tank left and are breathing through one tube passing it from one to another.

That’s what mutual guarantee (Arvut) is. After all, we are “tied” in the collective soul, except that we don’t see it yet. But gradually, the Creator reveals the true state of things for us: He removes the concealment.
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From the Talk on Sabbath Evening 10/16/10, “Arvut”

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Learning How To Work With Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe entire Torah, in other words, the whole method of correction, is intended to bring the human being to the degree of love, or in the language of Kabbalah, to bring him so that he corrects the breaking, and in social terms: to organize us into an integral society. Thus, we see the realization of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our world.

The purpose of creation is to bring us to an inner unity which also will be accompanied by an external unity between people. We all will become as one. As it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” (Isaiah 56:7), and “I will yet gather others to him, together with his gathered ones” (Isaiah 56:8). Thus, we will come to a complete redemption.

According to the understanding of Kabbalists, we must realize this transition now, and everything that is happening indicates this.

So, the method is designed to accelerate us on the path to this correction. Otherwise, we face the path according to “in its time,” which is very long and full of suffering. On the other hand, by accelerating, we can make our path fast, easy, comfortable, and enjoyable. For this, we were given the wisdom of Kabbalah or the method of integral education as a means of revealing the Creator in this world.

The “Creator” is the essence of the property of the “Good That Does Good,” in other words, the property of love and bestowal that is revealed in a person and between people, in their relationship with each other. Due to this relationship, this love of the created beings, they reach the revelation of the Creator and love for Him. Thus, the method of correction is realized as it is written, “Love thy friend as thyself is the great rule of the Torah.” Starting with love for others, we reach the love for the closest One, for the Creator, and then we are in adhesion with Him, which is the ultimate goal.

As Baal HaSulam writes, everything that we create, striving to achieve adhesion, is built above the desire to receive, above our egoism, and that is why we need to learn to work with it, to learn how to handle it correctly, starting with the full spiritual incapacity at the present moment up to the state where this material of desire is ready to use in order to sculpt out of it the image of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator, that is, the force of love and bestowal.

How is it done? It is with the help of the Light that Reforms in the group with the friends. It is here in the group that we have the freedom of choice, the only free action that we are capable of. Therefore, it is not worthwhile to make extra efforts in looking for other ways and means. We have power over this action while in everything else our independence is illusory, but in reality we just allow nature to involve us.

If I use my freewill correctly, I move forward by the path of hastening; that is, I set the pace of my advancement myself. Then, my states, consistent with my efforts, will be more effective as well as more convenient and fast. After all, I am preparing myself to adequately, correctly accept changes that always have an anti-egoistic character. I desire them.

However, this requires a well-organized group, studies, participation in dissemination, everything that we identify in our work.

So why do we need the force of the Light, the force of the Torah? What do the words, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice” mean? The fact is that my advancement depends on the recognition of evil. If I can identify it quickly and as clearly as possible recognize its negative effect on me, then, I am ready to get rid of it.

That is why I must focus all my efforts precisely on the recognition of evil. My egoism, my desire to receive, initially is ready to reject everything that is bad for it, depending on how bad it is in comparison with the possible pleasures and consequently with the right approach, my nature will serve me on the path.
[119347]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Dawn Of A New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There is going to be a convention in Bulgaria this weekend (November 1-3), Dawn of a New World. What do you expect of this meeting?

Answer: First, the convention will be much bigger than we expected: We expected 200 people to participate but instead about 500 people have already registered and it isn’t final yet. Our friends from the former USSR, from Europe, from the Far East, and also many friends from Israel are coming. You can arrive before the convention starts. I intend to give my first lecture on Thursday evening.

It will be a very practical convention that is dedicated to the dissemination of integral education. We will all deal with questions of how to develop and how to implement the method of integral education and will also discuss current problems.

We are starting to establish a language of our own concepts that enables us to give more concrete explanations about the global crisis, about the disintegration of the institution of marriage, about problems in education, and other problems in every area of our lives. We will speak about how to approach ordinary people, how to talk to them in order to convey our thoughts, and will explain how they can be saved from the situation they are stuck in and cannot escape.

The deterioration and the downfall is everywhere and those who are at the top today will fall even lower than others. We are going to hear about new problems and decrees every day. The governments are not to blame. It’s simply the Lights that are revealed in which we will feel and discover an increasingly worse state.

There is only one way to avoid this and it is by connection. If we begin to connect, then we will feel better in the Light that today brings us the feeling of evil and darkness.

This is the transition from the path of suffering to the path of the Torah, which means from the path of “in its time” to the path of “I shall hasten it.” The tool for this change, for turning the darkness into Light, is changing me so that I will learn how to perceive it differently. I change myself and by that I also change the Light that reaches me. The Light is divided into two types: the Light that corrects and the Light that fills and we have to use it accordingly.

This is why the Torah is called the method of correction that includes the Light that corrects me and the Light that fills me. The two Lights together are called the Torah.
[119336]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Ego: Friend Or Foe?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we work as one group, we make great efforts, but the ego is revealed each time anew and separates us. What should we do? After all, it disturbs us from disseminating efficiently.

Answer: I don’t understand how the ego can stand in your way. What would you do without it? You exist thanks to it and it’s only thanks to it that you can rise as it continuously grows and swells inside you. It’s by rising above the ego that you can keep on growing and without it you will attain nothing. Its growing is a clear sign of your growing.

How can you see the ego negatively?! It’s the force that develops us and without which it would be impossible to be shaken. After all, you can only be shaken or pricked by your ego. It’s very simple.

We mustn’t relate to the ego this way since it’s our nature. Everything that the Creator has created was created in total harmony. When all the inner and external envies are revealed, we should understand that it’s impossible to make even one step forward without them! What’s more, you can change them into the opposite attributes on the spot. It is possible.

The ego increasingly grows on the way to our spiritual attainment. At the same time, it’s gradually revealed through terrible states, in the form of scary forces that are opposite from the Creator.

Today very little of it is revealed in the form of different positive or negative impressions, even without any specific reference. However, when you have a more accurate goal, you will reveal your ego in ways that may seem like your beloved or your dear child being kidnapped before your very eyes and their lives being threatened. What would you feel then?! What would you do?!

When your ego is revealed that way, as it kills your slight movement towards the Creator, it will take on different forms. Now it is only the prologue.
[119186]
From a Talk About the Dissemination 10/17/13

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Living In Intention Instead Of Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe soul is the desire that was created by the Light, the Creator, which eventually must reach similarity to the Creator.

The Light (represented by the plus sign on image 1) creates an equal desire (the minus sign). However, once it enters the desire, they nullify one another. The desire does not perceive Light as pleasure because they are opposite.

However, as the desire acquires the quality of the Light, it gradually begins to transform into its opposite. It intends to make a restriction (Tzimtzum) and only work with the Reflected Light, in other words, to receive and enjoy only when it feels that it bestows to the one who gives it pleasure. In this way, it attains equality with the Creator.

In other words, Light comes to me with the desire to give me pleasure, but I accept it only under the condition that I feel equivalent to the Creator, as in the example with the Host and the guest.

The Host wishes to please the guest, give him everything there is (arrow marked “a,”representing the pleasure traveling and entering the desire). However, the guest only agrees to accept it under the condition that they are equal (arrow marked “b,” intention or Kavana).

If the intention of my action is to return what I receive from the Host, then as a guest, I can accept the pleasure. In other words, I only do actions that bring me closer to the Host, the Creator, that make me equivalent to Him.

In our world, we live in the action of receiving for our own sake. We wish to receive as much as possible. Nothing else interests us.

This is why we reach a state where we exhaust our possibilities; in other words, the correlation between the plus (what we receive from the Host) and the minus (which exists in us) disappears and we stop perceiving pleasure. In this way, nature, the Creator, pushes us to begin working on a second level in a state of similarity to the Creator. [Read more →]

Tapping Into Hidden Resources

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can we do if everyone in the group agrees with the importance of dissemination, but no one does anything?

Answer: Dissemination is necessary not for those to whom you disseminate, but so that they give you an additional Kli, vessel, additional suffering, and an additional opportunity to unite. If you begin to disseminate, you start feeling the pain of people you go out to, their terrible state, even if they live behind a metal door in a lovely apartment with all the amenities, and there is a limousine by their house.

After all, when you talk to them, you feel their emptiness. And if you dig deeper, you will find that they themselves feel it, only they hide it from themselves; nothing is okay for them, the whole world is not nice. You must empathize with their suffering in the absence of food, family, normal life, shelter, work, and interaction with other people, some warmth, health, and proper child education: everything that people lack in a normal human life.

If you feel this, and you are sure to feel this no matter how selfish you are, this will start to affect you and will force to unite with each other. And when you promise them that you can bring them out of this state by means of joint participation in workshops, meetings, common activities, and begin to organize this in practice, you will begin to really implement what Kabbalah says, for yourself and for them.

How else will you be able to reveal the Creator, if you do not organize practical training? Everyone who studied at a college, a university, and knows that practical training is crucial. What is the purpose of you listening to the lectures all the time? This is only confuses your mind, blocks you, and does not go anywhere, either in the feelings, or practical thoughts that are already becoming yours. If you do not go out to the masses, you will fade.

At all times, bloodletting was considered the most effective treatment, not infusions, but bloodletting. This triggers the work of the entire body. You have to go outside! You must disseminate! Letting the theory flow out, like bloodletting, you engage those hidden resources that do not work in you yet. Now, you are full of theory; there is nothing in your hands. That’s a pity.
[119181]
From a Talk About the Dissemination 10/17/13

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