Conventions are the necessary step to create a unified Kli (vessel, desire). If above all our problems, contradictions, distances, and differences in mentality and understanding we try to unite, then due to the differences between us and the connection above them, we will reach a powerful desire measured by the contradictions within it and the connection above it. This is the purpose of conventions. 

I understand that there are huge problems in every group and internal distances between the groups. That is why the main thing at the conventions is to try to rise above them. Don’t destroy, but learn to overcome the problems by uniting above them by “faith above reason” or love that “will cover all sins.” Let’s cover everything within us with this “blanket” and build our common desire for the Creator above this. It should be precisely like this, at the top, above all the contradictions. 

Everything that we have passed through, all the problems, the hardening of the internal Pharaoh—everyone’s personal Pharaoh and the common Pharaoh between us—all that has been given to us from Above, from the Creator. And now we only need to think about unity, how in this unity, according to the law of equivalence to the Light, we discover the upper Light in ourselves, in our connection between us.

The conventions, consisting of lectures and various exercises on connection, are dedicated to this.
[76235]
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012    

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Question: How can we best prepare ourselves for the period of conventions so as to create a feeling of a unified group?

Answer: We will work on this at the time of the conventions as well. To do this, we need to re-read the article “The Freedom” and Rabash’s articles about unification. We need to study again the shattering of the spiritual Kli (vessel), how it shaped our earthly perception of ourselves: We now see that we are distant from one another, existing in opposition to one another, in a growing egoism, hatred, and various egoistic desires.

We have to understand that our nature is made to be so opposite to the Creator on purpose, in order for us to rise above it specifically from contradiction, starting from the opposite state, and thus be able to sense Him, since otherwise we would be incapable of it. We begin to feel and build ourselves in similarity to Him specifically based on the contrast between our nature and His.

Hence the most important preparation is to repeat the material that we study all the time: a little bit from Kabbalah itself—about the shattering of the vessel and its correction, as well as the topic of the development of egoism from Adam till our days covered in one of the “Talks about a New Life.” In general, we have lots of materials on this subject.

But most important is to simply know why you come to the convention. You come there to participate in the general Kli, in the general desire, which we all created and in which we will sense the Creator.
[76232] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012  

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The world around us is in absolute calm, all filled with the upper Light. We must correct our feelings, our organ of perception. There is none else besides Him. What else do you want?! Here He is—in front of you, around you, within you.

Remove your “I,” and you begin to feel what kind of world is around us, in the form of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), and what kind of the world is within us, in the form of the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi). Just remove the partition, and everything will be fine.

The separation is cancelled by restriction and then by the screen. In the beginning, egoism is annulled, and the Light passes through you freely. This state is called “Ibur” (conception), the state of being inside the mother’s vessel, when you are completely surrounded and exist inside Mother Nature, the Creator.

And then you start to grow like an embryo inside your mother, are born, and develop further. When you begin to convert your egoism into bestowal, in the likeness of the Creator, then something that exists independently, in the likeness to the Light, comes out from you. You don’t obstruct the Light that passes through you, but amplify it.

Only from the initial setting to “There is none else besides Him” do we continue to tune ourselves to the fact that the world is filled with absolute good. If I don’t feel this in the heart, desires, and don’t fully understand it in the mind, I am not corrected. Then, I find out how much I am not corrected.

These states are typically intermediate and require further development. It takes place in the group. When I make an effort and explicitly go establish harmonious relations with the friends, then I immediately see how much I don’t want that! My egoism is manifested instantly, pushing me away from the friends. This occurs naturally. And I reveal that I am a sinner, and a serious one. Then, I have an opportunity to go further to request correction. This is the next stumbling block and the next reference point.

The first reference point is “There is none else besides Him.”

The second reference point is to see that everything is absolute good through this focus, like through a telescope.

The third reference point is the group, through which I must see everything, in order to come to a clear understanding whether I am a sinner or a righteous one.

There are no in-between states. We should avoid them. This is appeasement that will lead us nowhere. We just lose time!
[76111]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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Question: There are a lot of new people who are used to studying virtually. How can we describe to or give them a taste of the sensation of conventions so that they would come to the convention?

Answer: First of all, whoever can come should necessarily do so. If a person is given such an opportunity and he doesn’t utilize it, it harms him since he as if disregards an opportunity to connect. And he shouldn’t try to convince himself that it will be better for him to stay at home or with his group. If he can come to the convention, even if he is the only one from his entire group that doesn’t stay behind to participate in a mirror convention, he should still come, whoever can come should come.

Second, it is necessary to create certain conditions the way we did in the past, both during the convention in the Arava desert and the European Congress in Vilnius, meaning we should hold big mirror conventions.

Besides, we will broadcast from Bogota, Santiago, and other cities. There will be lectures for the 99%. So we will be in touch anyway, and you will feel this connection.

Question: How advanced should we be in order to come to the convention?

Answer: Not at all. You simply have to wish to be there, and then—you are invited.
[76229] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012  

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Question: How can we make the convention in the U.S. unique so that it will connect the groups in America into one?

Answer: I don’t know whether we’ll succeed, but I have great hopes because the time has come.

Unfortunately, our friends in the U.S., even those who finished their studies at the Education Center and live in different places, still don’t understand or don’t see a need to unite. Quite possibly, at some point we need to organize a separate convention for them. The management of our Education Center in St Louis should take care of it.

Perhaps people didn’t study enough material on the importance of unification, about the fact that they can discover what they have learned about the upper world—how it manifests, becomes revealed, and is sensed in a person—only in unity, that is, not in a single person, but in a connection between us.

Where is this connection? Do they aspire to it? If they don’t yearn for it, they will not sense it. So they finished some theoretical course, and it all ended there.

Most important is practice, a practical revelation of the upper world for oneself. They are not doing it. Meanwhile, life is getting worse all the time. It pushes us towards unification, but not through the wisdom of Kabbalah, the good path, but through the path of suffering. I think that they should understand that after having a theoretical basis, it is best to realize it in practice, and so come to the convention.

I invite you all. Those of you who finished courses at the Education Center and live in the U.S., I would very much like to see you at the convention. Let’s make the most of it!
[76226] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012 

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The need for each of the friends is a very unpleasant necessity. We always divide people: These are more agreeable, these are less; we can better understand these, those ones less; these ones can be ignored; we can become closer with these, but should stay away from those, etc. We constantly differentiate the surrounding society, and this is very bad.

The concept “There is none else besides Him” means that you treat everyone equally. It’s very hard! Here we must constantly monitor our egoism, which always puts everyone in his place: This one is closer, that one is farther, I walk past this one, have to smile to that one, to greet this one, to hold that one’s hand, etc. Thus, we always position ourselves relative to others because these are animal feelings.

But all the points in the heart are exactly the same. That is why equal treatment and absolute leveling of our natural, earthly properties in order to remove them and not to see them at all are the main thing.

In spiritual work, there are no pleasant or unpleasant, near or far; there is none whom you understand or don’t understand. I mean it as spiritual work, not dissemination actions or daily work on the physical level. In the group, one cannot be less or more: Everyone is equal; otherwise, they are not friends.

Thus, removing all the animal earthly signs and placing all the points in the heart on the same level, constantly working so they are equal, equivalent for me, higher or lower than me, but equally important, I build myself so as not to see the friends’ bodies. This is very important and extremely difficult because egoism constantly automatically focuses on someone and ignores the other, etc.

There are dozens of people whom we don’t notice. And there are people who attract us. This must be cleaned, deleted. Everyone is equal. The soul is one, and there are no differences in the spiritual realm, the upper Light levels everything.

That is why the group is such a training place, such a laboratory aimed at the goal that is necessary for aligning oneself according to the goal in all respects. One person cannot achieve this. He needs the sights, through which he will look and align the axes to hit the target accurately.

This is one of the most important axes. A person removes everything earthly and sees only the point burning in his friend and aimed at the goal. He appreciates him only for this, only in this is he his friend, he wants to be his equal only in this, he wants to unite only with this. All the rest, the earthly, will die anyway, will be corrected in some way, it doesn’t matter; the most important is the point.

After all, the mother loves her child regardless of his character, properties, etc.; he is like that by nature, what can you do? She loves him because he has her point. Of course, this is egoistic animal love. And initially, it must be as the egoistic animal in us because we all come from one soul.

And then we’ll see how everyone “gives birth” to each other in the spiritual world. If we are equal, then each of us is greater and smaller than the other. Our AHPs are combined with the Galgalta ve Eynaim of the friends, and their AHPs are included in me and give birth to me. Working in this way, the whole system becomes integral. I become included in someone; he becomes included into me, and thus everyone in everyone else: all the billions of particles.

Therefore, we must understand that thus we are fathers/mothers and their children for everyone. The mutual inclusion of Galgalta ve Eynaim in AHP in a sphere creates this integral drop.

There are a lot of settings. There are, in general, a few of them, but we interpret them in this way because it’s very difficult to withstand the truth; we have to divide it into components, the sum of which will give us the exact sight to the target, to unity. In our properties, this unity is composed in all kinds of paths towards it. Altogether, they help us act: by suffering from behind, by striving forward, with enthusiasm for the goal, by seeing oneself higher or lower than others, etc.
[76022]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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The Book of Zohar, “Bo (Come unto Pharaoh),” The Passover Sacrifice, Item 189: When the Creator came to Egypt, He saw the Passover blood written on the door, and the covenant blood—how they were standing at the door.

Question: How can I keep the right intention while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: There is no doubt that I can’t keep the right intention, but I need to imagine the state I want to be in now.

First I need to totally detach myself from the voice of the announcer, as if I don’t hear anything. I know that I am connected to a pipe through which the Light flows unto me and it can either help me or harm me: it can become the “elixir of life” or the “potion of death.” It all depends on how I hear!

It is as if I put on earphones, but I turn the volume down and don’t want to hear. First I want to know what energy, what force, reaches me through these channels, how the Reforming Light should influence me. Do I receive it like a bat and sink even more deeply into the darkness, or like a rooster that expects the dawn? It all depends on my intention and so I have to clarify this first.

So first I block my ears in order not to hear anything. What should I do now so that the Light that reaches me will heal me? I don’t want the snake that is the symbol of medicine, to turn into a real snake and poison me with its lethal venom. The same poison can be used as a medicine even though it comes from the same source, from the same snake. In order to do that I have to prepare myself, to be in a group together with the friends, to want to connect with them in my heart and soul to become one man in one heart, to attain such a love into which we can all dissolve and feel ourselves as one whole.

To the extent that we can reach that by the Light that Reforms us into one body, we will feel the force that unites us, the Creator, internally. We will feel the source of the Surrounding Light. The Light determines the connection among us. The source of the Light is the Creator who is revealed in the vessel that is arranged correctly.

First I have to imagine this whole state accurately. When I see it before me by imagining it emotionally and even visually, I gradually begin to unclog my ears. Then I turn on the volume in order to hear the announcer’s voice, as long as I can keep the image I have created in my mind. But if what is going on disturbs me from keeping that image, I turn the volume down again. If it doesn’t disturb me, I follow that voice.

I try to hear the announcer and no matter what is being said: whether it is about Passover, the blood of the circumcision on the door, the details about the exodus from Egypt, I try to find all these discernments in that image in which we are all connected.

I don’t depict the image according to the corporeal meaning of the words which the “language of the branches” uses, but rather translate them into the “language of the spiritual roots”: Sefirot, Partzufim, reception and bestowal, the connection between us and the Creator, and the unity of the concepts “Israel, the Torah and the Creator.” I immediately get rid of the actual words, as from an unwanted shell. It is as if I clean the shell off the nuts before I begin to eat them, and thus I get rid of corporeal concepts and immediately move on from the branches to the roots.

I try to imagine what it looks like in the spiritual roots: what is the meaning of “lintel,” “Mezuzah,” or “blood.” Even if I don’t understand, it makes no difference. The main thing is my efforts, wanting to know what is being studied, to connect to what is being studied. The Reforming Light influences me according to my efforts.

We must constantly repeat these exercises over and over again, in every book that we study: the articles of Rabash and Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Zohar, the Mishnah, Shulchan Aruch, all the books are about how to connect the broken vessel.
[76148]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabblah Lesson 4/22/12, The Zohar 

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Question: How do we plan to inspire all of humanity? For instance, my husband is not interested in anything other than soccer.

Answer: I don’t think that you are unable to influence your husband. After all, a wife always influences her husband. His opinion will change. A woman knows how to make this happen.

The ability to influence a man was purposefully given to a woman. If it were not for her influence, men would simply be lost. It is indeed so because without a woman’s desire, which a man realizes in life, he would realize his own desires simply like a child. It would be something odd.

The reality is that the world stands on female desires, the desire for a home, family, children, and all things that are serious and necessary for our lives. This is first.

Second, what does it all mean in regard to the world? We serve as intermediaries between the world and the Creator. We have to show and explain to the world our method, which brings a person closer to love and bestowal and makes him correspond to the upper Light, the general force of nature.

We can base it on the opinions of thousands of scientists who research nature and discover a singular global quality through which nature connects elements, creates life, and operates it. If we explain and disseminate this to people, we will reduce the world’s suffering. The world will move toward goodness, connection, and life.

However, if we don’t do this, we will experience even greater suffering. We have no choice but to disseminate the method of the correction of man, of human nature, to the world. If we want to, we will accomplish it. We simply have to give it importance.

We can think about love and bestowal only when we actually disseminate the method of correction. Let’s try together.
[75935]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1  

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Question: During our work at the workshop, I had a feeling as though I was a guard for my friend. Is such a state justifiable? Or is everyone equal in a circle and has a right to make sure their friend is not diverting from the goal and from the topic of the workshop?

Answer: I have to perceive the group as something absolutely perfect: an eternal, infinite, and perfect system. I enter it as a small one into something huge that is forming me.

If being in the group I see or hear something unpleasant from my friends, something that seems to be bad or imperfect, I have to understand that this is because I am this way. In other words, the Creator sets me up so that I would perceive everything precisely in this way. He is playing with me since, as it is written, “there is none else besides Him.” I have to justify Him and say that I perceive everything in the negative way because of my incorrect properties.

If I exist in connection with my friends, I cannot see anything negative in them, but only perfection! Everything else is either my or the Creator’s fault.
[75945]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1 

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Zeir Anpin is an upper mechanism. Whereas Malchut is my system that I can build together with the friends, that is, with the desires of the Creator that He arranges for me so that I can connect with them.

There are types of desires that do not belong to me; they are foreign desires, but they are also aimed at the Creator like me. I don’t look at their faces but only at the desires, or sparks.

Then I perform different external actions in order to unite us. I want to collect all these desires, all these small vectors into one bundle so that they will become powerful. When they are together, it’s impossible to break them as it is when they are separate.

We connect when each one annuls himself in order to attain the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the attribute of mutual bestowal. We create it among us in order to show ourselves and the Creator that we are ready for bestowal and want it. Although it isn’t in our power to attain it and we can’t really bestow upon each other by annulling our ego, we still show the most we can reach in our group.

If we make such efforts, the Light that Reforms appears and fulfills the connection among us. Then from this connection (Malchut), we feel the attribute of bestowal that connects us with Zeir Anpin. Thus we discover the Creator: Yesod of Zeir Anpin connects to Malchut and Malchut begins to attain Him.

Malchut doesn’t connect to Zeir Anpin only by a point any more. It begins to open the attributes of bestowal inside it, which befit Zeir Anpin and at the same time are opposite from it because they cooperate with each other. Zeir Anpin and Malchut connect so that the upper Light is revealed between them: the Light of Hochma and Bina, the Light of AB-SAG, and thus we come to consciousness.

Everything depends on how we prepared Malchut. Accordingly, as much as a desire suitable for Zeir Anpin appears in it, it begins to grow together with Malchut. It absorbs its desire and thus grows.
[75950]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2012, The Zohar  

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