Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Refusal With A Hidden Message

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe group exists only in order to reveal the Creator, the force that bestows and operates on us. By adhering to It, we rise above our corporeal existence and feel the eternal life flowing in their infinite flow. The bodies change from one generation to another, but we regulate the connection with the soul and exist in it unified forever.

We can attain that only by connection and unity. Although it isn’t in our power to unite, the upper Light, the Creator is the one who unites us, but with the help of the group we can discover the need, the necessity for that. We need a great desire, a great need for the Light to unite us. So under what circumstances will we want that? It is in the state of separation.

This is why the negativity is revealed in the group: conflicts, separation, and alienation among the friends. We have to be ready, we have to know that all these things are revealed so that we will regulate the connection among us and unite above them.

Eventually the following picture is depicted: Below there is the ego (Ego) that separates the friends, and we connect above it by our mutual love (Amor). At the same time, no one disturbs the others. Even if I don’t get along with the friends, even if there are conflicts for different reasons, it all happens on the level of the human ego that separates us. Above it we build the connections of love.

The ego constantly grows, and we have to make greater efforts in order to be connected above it, above the jealousy ,hatred, passion, pride, and domination. I hug the friend internally despite everything that I feel against him.

The main thing is that the love doesn’t annul the ego, so that they will both grow stronger in their resistance. The ego is Malchut (M), and love is Keter (K). We don’t know in advance what tension, what gap will be between them (Δ), but eventually (℧) it has to make up the first ten whole Sefirot. Then I get a vessel in which I feel the spiritual world, the Creator, the Light.

This will happen only if Keter already grows inside me, which means the desire to love the friend above the great hatred is enough to create the first ten Sefirot.

All the problems in our relationships should be examined as urges that push us forward. Every “malfunction” indicates that we are worthy of intensifying the love and the connection among us. If a person cannot do that, if he doesn’t know about the tool that enables him to build the connection above the repulsion, his ego isn’t increased, and he lives an ordinary life. It is only from us that the growing ego constantly demands to be in mutual connections.

We did a great work in connecting during the convention. We felt what it means to be together in the warmth of mutual cooperation. Later we will feel how our desire grows weaker, how the tension diminishes, and how the indifference takes over. Thus our ego has grown, by asking a “logical question”: “What do you need all this for? We’ve celebrated enough…”

It is a perfectly natural feeling for a person, and he doesn’t feel that he is being played upon from above and that his ego is being increased intentionally by summoning rejection, indifference, and fatigue. It is all done on purpose, so that a person will overcome the obstacles. Try not to forget this, make a sign for yourself, try to see how the only force that exists Above is lying to you and confuses you so that you will begin to understand above your mood, “in which direction the wind is blowing,” and you will reach Him.

By rejecting us, this force wants us to want Him. It is like a woman who is courting a man, and seems to be keeping him away, rejecting him, only to ignite his desire. The wisdom of Kabbalah calls this a “dance”: We are getting closer and then getting further away, again and again, until the desire grows strong to be ten whole Sefirot. Then the Creator will be revealed to us and we will adhere to Him in a true connection.
[77203]
From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

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How Can We Attain Atzmuto?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Creator gives us everything; He provides translators, study rooms, learning centers, etc. Why can’t He grant us correction?

Answer:  The Creator can give us everything, but He cannot make creation attain Him and become similar to Him.

What does that mean that the Creator grants us assemblies and provides us with land? Why did He create our congresses and countries we live in? What do we need them for? We could have stayed in the World of Infinity and that would be it. Why have we descended through five worlds to this realm? To sense the problems and experience the states we all go through? Who needs them? If you ask anybody in the world, you’ll see that no one wants them.

The Creator made only one thing—a point!—nothing more. Light entered the point and started to interact with it. The property of the Light is bestowal; the quality of the point is receiving. They constitute two opposing states: plus and minus, a microscopic power of the Light (bestowal) and a tiny force of receiving contrary to it. These two forces constantly continue to evolve.

The Creator didn’t do anything but this. The Creator is something intermediate, external, that is called Atzmuto (By Himself.) In order to attain the properties of Atzmuto and be able to perceive Him, we have to combine both properties together so that they become equal, similar to each other; the property of receiving should become identical to the property of bestowal. In other words, the property of receiving should learn to bestow the way the giving power does.

When we become equal to the property of bestowal (the Light) we start balancing between these two forces, thus experiencing the force called Atzmuto, which created both Light and desire. The Light originates directly from Atzmuto and is in fact His property called “something out of something,” whereas egoistic desire represents “something out of nothing.” Still, both of them stem from the Creator.

Therefore, as soon as we achieve similarity between desire and Light by making them parallel to each other, we start sensing a third force.

In Kabbalah, this notion is expressed by the idea of three lines. The left line stands for the power of desire (egoism); the right line signifies the power of the Light (bestowal), whereas the middle line is the third force that emerges out of comparison between the first two.

When we receive a part that belongs to desire and at the same time get another part from the Light, we compare them within ourselves in a way that they become balanced and equal; that’s how we reveal the Creator by utilizing the middle line.

We are talking about physical laws here; there is nothing beyond them. It is the same way in any science; we use the method of comparison in order to find a third parameter, the initial value. How else we can define it?

In order to be known, we need to demonstrate at least two of our opposing properties so that by comparing them another person can recognize and understand who we are. Only by contrasting various qualities is it possible to comprehend, measure, and weigh something.

This is the reason why the Creator gave us the possibility of existing between a “plus and a minus.” By receiving from Him and comparing what we have received, we attain Him. This applies to all spheres of our life. In technology, we determine what the source of energy is by knowing who the consumer is. Without egoism or the Light that flows through our ego, we cannot realize or sense who we deal with.

After the Creator generated a black point that is opposite to the Light, two qualities (plus and minus) continue to evolve on their own. There is nothing else going on. The act of creation stopped at that point; furthermore, we see that advancement happens by itself and originates from the two opposites. There is no interference on His behalf any more from Atzmuto (He, Himself.)

Our nature constantly evolves. That means that we can pronounce: “The Creator doesn’t exist!” We see that everything around us complies with certain norms; life is defined by rigid laws that exist universally.

However, if we strive to find Him (achieve the upper level) we have to start equating. How?—Only by positioning ourselves between “a plus” and “a minus.” How do we place ourselves in such a condition?—Only if we associate our “minus” with our ego and manage to link the “plus” with the group.

Under “our ego” we do not mean the desire to party, drink, eat, entertain, or have lots of leisure time. No. We mean our resistance to becoming connected with our fellow group members. This is the only factor that makes a difference. If we continue trying to unite with our friends beyond our ego, we will eventually get such a dipole, such strength of magnetic field that we’ll be able to reveal the Creator within it. At this level of merging with the group, the property of Atzmuto emerges.

I am talking about elementary physical conditions and laws. We cannot ignore them. The problem is that we have to be situated inside this scheme. We’ll try!
[74143]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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Checking The Connection With The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to understand that there are only two states in our life, in our reality: a state of darkness, a shade, or a state of Light, connection, the revelation of the good and the benevolent. There is nothing in between. If by hearing about it a person constantly tries to clarify the states he goes through, whether it is a shade or the revelation of the Creator, he will advance by the middle line.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 8: “What is the Difference Between the Shade of Kedusha and the Shade of Sitra Achra“: “Instead, all the changes are in the receivers. We must observe two discernments in this shade…”

The first is when a person can still unite with the friends, by overcoming the thoughts about separation and the “blurring” of the senses. He can still overcome the darkness and the concealment; he still understands that he has lost the goal, the way to the Creator.

But on the whole, no one conducts actual self-criticism, “Why do I feel this way? Where is this feeling coming from?” I am not my own psychologist, I simply feel good or bad, like a child. I don’t calculate who sends me these thoughts and these feelings. I “stew” in them, and sink into my body, like a small child.

Yet a person must know and examine himself: “What has summoned my feelings and my thoughts? How can I ascend above myself, above the current state? How can I get out of this swamp by pulling myself by my hair?” A person always looks at himself from the side, “Yes, I am deep in my egoistic desire. Yes, it controls me. True, it doesn’t allow me to connect, it doesn’t let me get up for the lesson, it forces me to disconnect, it makes the daily life with all its dealings seem more important. But I see that I am in this state and that it is opposite from the goal.”

How can I understand and recognize this? When I am still connected to something external, to the group. Here comes the moment of truth, I can check whether I was really connected to the group or not. If I wasn’t connected, I only feel myself: I feel bad, I don’t want anything, etc. Furthermore, I don’t even try to account for this and simply flow along without any special thoughts or desires.

But if I were connected to the group, if I had an alliance with the friends, according to which they have to help me even if I fall and turn in anther direction, the inner connections is kept, I would care about how they see me, and I wouldn’t totally forget about my commitment. They would support me and I would be able to see myself from the side and to clarify my feelings.

Thus I will be divided into two: my own self and my attitude towards the group. Only then, by holding on to the connection with the friends, will I be able to clarify and check myself and by that to start the ascent that follows the descent. Otherwise, I have no chance; I simply fall and leave. So a person can overcome the first type of shade, by justifying the current state and understanding that it was sent to him by the Creator. Then he can call the Creator for help.

Why do I turn to Him? Not in order to feel better, because then I would be asking to annul my evil inclination, which He has created, by adding the Torah as a spice for it. So I should ask for the spice, so that the power of love and bestowal, the power of connection, will come from Above and enable me to advance towards the other line.

“When one still has the ability to overcome the darkness and the concealment that one feels, justify the Creator and pray to the Creator that the Creator will open his eyes to see that all the concealments that one feels come from the Creator.”

When a person is left helpless and sees no way out, when he curses the Creator, the friends and life, he is still looking at himself from the side and suddenly sees a chance for a breakthrough, he can demand that the Creator will save him. Why? Because he does not accept the state when the Creator’s providence seems bad, and he cannot justify Him. A person feels bad because he thinks badly of the good and the benevolent, by being opposite from Him. If life seems bad, it is a sign that I am opposite from the Creator.

We have to build a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light above all the hard situations. Even in the worst situations I must see the Creator as their source, as the Light that is full of all the infinite abundance, but that is broken inside me and turns into a bad feeling, into a shade, into darkness, since my attributes are opposite from the good and the benevolent, opposite from the attribute of bestowal and love.

Thus we advance each time we clarify things correctly. The main thing is to constantly discover this point, “What do I feel? Who is sending me this feeling? Why am I experiencing this feeling?” This is the whole principle of our work and this is what divides humanity into the 1% and the 99%.
[76939]
From the Lesson from Brazil 5/03/12, Shamati #8

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In Order Not To Forget

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are constantly repeating that the only thing that we should do is to work with the Light. But we are as if deaf and instantly forget about this. Why does this happen?

Answer: It is written in all the books about the work with the Light. And we forget because our egoism, our nature, is against this. The only thing that can help us is the environment. But the environment has to think about this, instead of talking, because our words give nothing. If the environment is constantly in this thought, in the search around this, you will not forget.
[76894]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Workshop 4

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Psychological Training

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe should try to enact the system that has been offered to us by Kabbalists, the method that possesses the capacity to change the world.

We attempt to implement the Kabbalists’ advice as the only possibility for our beginning to sense our next step, unity, out of this material realm.

At this time, people try to be minimally connected and balanced with integral nature. However, through our unity with others, to the degree of the efforts we apply in order to connect with eternal, global nature and our inspiration to sense it as something tangible between us, we eventually will end up experiencing a genuine sensation of bestowal and love, a warm feeling, a wave that embraces us all.

This force has been concealed from us thus far, but it can appear if we all strive for it. If we possess even a tiny desire to achieve this state that, in fact, already was granted to us, and if we make an effort to unite, we can rest assured that we already possess all the prerequisites that are necessary to achieve unity.

All we must do is to wish to achieve a sensation of unity by utilizing the possibilities that we already have received. Our aspiration should be directed toward viewing and sensing the power that fills the entire universe. Then, we will realize that we are placed inside of the joint Kli (vessel) that is filled with warmth, Light, and bestowal like a fetus in its mother’s womb.
[75720]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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Don’t Be Embarrassed. Grow!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the workshop, I constantly felt shame that we were sitting and playing like children. After all we are grown-ups. What can I do with regard to this?

Answer: This game is nature’s most important and mature component. Whoever plays is the one who grows. And the one who doesn’t play, he already is considered as dead because his growth has stopped.

Do you know what the game symbolizes? The game is when I imagine the next level of my advancement and yearn for it. Actually it is a sign of growth.

Exactly the same game is found in vegetative and the conditions of development of the animate. The same element exists in them.

While working on my doctorate in philosophy, I had a question on the theory of games.

In order to grow, the plant needs to create within itself the suitable conditions for that, to develop within itself the forces of growth. Thus it grows.

The same unique principle of the game operates also in spirituality and also in our world, at every level of the worlds. Every one! Thus the game is the most esteemed component of nature.

It is not a football game, but a game of the next level, a game of growth.

This is the most honorable engagement of a person, since in this way he grows.

You pass through a very broad variety of states, of feelings. You need to accumulate all of this within you in order to feel the Upper Light. It is surrounding us, but we can’t “grasp” it. We need all of these feelings, which need to accumulate in us more and more. It will gradually accumulate in you, will assemble into one sensor, one detector, one sense, and then you will discover it.

This is actually the task of the creation of the soul. The soul is like a sensor for feeling the Light. That’s all. On the one hand, under the influence of your yearnings, the attribute of bestowal and love is created in you, and on the other hand, according to your yearnings, the Upper Light operates and bestows on you and promotes you.

Thus there is nothing to be embarrassed of. Grow!
[75938]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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The Beneficial Revelation Of Hatred

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen I’m dealing with a friend like a worker when we are involved together in dissemination, when we are working on translations or with equipment, or in any kind of work, I supervise him and he is under me. These are our corporeal situations. We understand that we must manage business in this manner.

But the moment we enter the group, there are no differences between us. We only look at our “points in the heart,” only at the yearning of each one for the Creator. And then the revelation of hatred is beneficial, since then I have with what to turn to the Creator for help, since by myself I cannot do this.

On the level of our world, we find ways to get along: We go to a bar together, sit together, clarify the relationship between us. In spirituality, this doesn’t help. We must have the Upper Light.

Thus, as much as the hatred and evil is revealed between us grows, the request for the Upper Light will grow as well. We raise our MAN (prayer, Mayin Nukvin– female waters) to it; we ask for help and yell until it arrives.

It can be that help doesn’t come, since we still don’t have enough recognition of evil. After all it is said, “The world was created either for the complete evil or complete righteous.” First you need to attain the level of “complete evil.” This level is obtained when you long for the goal and see how far away you still are from it. And according to the measure of your longing, you determine the measure of the distance.

There are those who passively belong to the group and don’t participate in the shared connection. They don’t even imagine how powerful this work is, that it’s an ocean of all kinds of attributes and feelings, great pressures, that are impossible to even get close to it, this work repulses people ad nauseam, to the state of being completely powerless.

All of these states bring us gradually to the recognition of evil through the general support that is so important here, through mutual Arvut, when you feel the urgency of the friends, and it obliges you. Then you are able to attain the level of “complete evil” and discover your ego among the others. And this ego won’t be beastly, since the connection needs to be directed to the attainment of the supreme goal and only on it.

We aren’t a corporeal group that wants to assemble together in order to pass time, to play football, or build a mutual business. Our goal is different, to attain the attribute of bestowal and mutual love.

And immediately it is discovered how opposite we are to this. We must feel that this oppositeness draws our full attention. Thus, people who long for the Creator understand the condition that everything that happens to us happens only to discover these states.

And the Light helps us. It is thus structured and descends together with the desires (they are found one against the other), as it bestows on the desires only to the measure that they are able to cope with it, able to bear these feelings of oppositeness. And in spite of all these unpleasant feelings and the great disappointments, are able to yearn for connection and the goal.

There is no other system. It is built on the oppositeness of the two forces of nature: reception and bestowal, the Light and the desire. There is nothing else. It is a practical and scientific system. The only thing that should be taken into account is that we need to be more serious in its realization.
[76207]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Lesson 5

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The Role Of The Moderator In The Workshop

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the role of the moderator in the workshop?

Answer: I am the moderator, and there are also two representatives in each group that are responsible for the order in the group, so that everyone will have a chance to express their opinion and to complete each other’s ideas. They must complete each other, and they should pay attention to that, so that everyone will follow what each one is saying and see how he can express the same idea. The moderators in the group should take care that one common opinion is formed that is complete and closed and that everyone fully supports one another. They should make sure that the speakers don’t talk for too long, so that everyone will have a chance to express himself. This refers to the moderators in the groups.

As a moderator, I simply read a certain text slowly so that everyone will start discussing it and expressing their opinion.

There should also be someone in the group who writes down the questions that the group will ask at the end of the workshop. Every group, both the men’s group and the women’s group, will have a chance to ask two or three questions. Those in charge should write down the questions and decide how they should be presented.

Question: What shouldn’t a moderator do in the group?

Answer: He should only support the friendship and the love; in this framework you can do everything.
[76456]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/22/12, Preparation to the Congress

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The Breakthrough To Freedom Through The Thorns

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe begin to work with the environment from a period when it seems that everything is fine and that we manage to connect with it and are empowered by it. For the time being, a person doesn’t see his desire to receive as his enemy. This period is called the “seven years of plenty.”

During this time, a person doesn’t really need the Creator, and he begins to think about Him only when despairs from this work. He learns and works with others, but then begins to understand that nothing works.

It isn’t that we don’t receive an egoistic filling. We can cry out about this from the start. What we see is that we will not be able to attain connection. We begin to realize that connection is possible despite the ego, against it, above it. But we don’t want it! So, we despair and fall. We begin to think: “What do we need all this for?”

We grow weak. We fall asleep and lose interest in everything. It is as if we cut ourselves off from life, and both the spiritual and corporeal life seem tasteless. If the desire disappears, we have no power to move ourselves. This is how we are built. The biological system works according to this principle.

A person sees that he has no control over himself. Gradually, his eyes open up, and he begins to look for how he can affect the states he goes through and advance. He understands that the advancement isn’t in feeling good, as if he has taken some drug.

This is why if a person works only in order to receive some egoistic filling from it: to know more, to understand, to feel, or to decorate his life, the Torah can become the potion of death. He checks his state according to the way his egoistic engine turns and thinks that he is advancing. After all, his ego is receiving the energy of life.

However, if he begins to work with the right environment, the Light that comes operates on him and ruins this idyll. He begins to examine himself not only when it comes to feeling good, but he also tries to find out what the result is and what he is working for.

The Light constantly influences a person. Eventually, he understands that he is working for his ego, and this kind of work becomes tasteless. He wants to rise above it by receiving new values from the Light. He doesn’t want to be a small beast that obeys its feelings: A pleasant feeling is good; an unpleasant feeling is bad. You receive a bit more energy. You rise, you lose energy, you fall asleep. A person objects to carrying on this way.

Finally, he decides that the most important thing for him is the connection with the Creator, no matter what he goes through. These are the corrections that the Light that Reforms performs in him, providing him with such values. In a way, it is already work above reason. Although it is still egoistic, in slavery in Egypt, it is just before the exodus to freedom.

Now, a person feels that he is in true exile, under the blows of Pharaoh. He begins to clarify things gently: “I am ready to connect with the Creator since this connection is pleasant, but what should I do if it is unpleasant? Will I always be able to perceive the connection with Him as good, despite the bad feeling in my desire to receive? Perhaps it is even preferable because I can be sure that I am not biased in my ego so that I won’t run before everyone like a thief and shout: ‘Catch the thief.'”

A person just wishes to work for his own benefit as little as possible in order to not receive any reward in the ego, but the Creator plays different “tricks” on him to show him that he still is working for himself. Thus, he clarifies things more deeply, until he realizes the need to rise above his desire to receive and to stand between it and the Creator in order to make decisions by himself.

Thanks to this, he acquires a head (Rosh) and a spiritual Partzuf. The Creator is the upper Light: the Surrounding Light and the Inner Light, and a person makes an independent decision with regard to it, above his feelings and his desire to receive. This symbolizes a person’s exodus from Egypt to freedom.
[76041]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/2012, Writings of Rabash 

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Training On Demand

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Initially we assumed that the psychological training would last three hours. At the convention, we dedicate one hour. And now you say that it is possible to implement it during a quarter of an hour before the lesson. What is the difference?

Answer: These classes constitute a person’s intention, which he needs to formulate; he must spend so much time per day in order to remain in that spirit throughout the day.

There are people who are constantly in this state, those who return to this state, and those who are not able to stand it. Their ego is still so large that even though they make a small effort, they already need to exit this state, they are not able to remain in it.

Everything depends on what state the person is in as he advances. You gradually develop within the bestowal of the upper Light. Only this gives results and nothing else.

When you yearn to go forward, the Light influences you. It changes you and next time you will enter it with more sensitivity and will do so more easily. You are already very close to these attributes, and you will be immediately included in them. Let’s suppose that in the morning you awake like beasts, exist in “separation,” and immediately enter this world, the world in which the force directs everything.

You begin to grasp your day in a completely different way, to see what is happening everywhere. The more you receive information from the sensations or from anything else, you see how the Creator plays with his creatures, and how he wants to bring them to independence and simultaneously to also resemble Him.
[76446]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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