Entries in the 'Workshops' Category

Working With A Person’s Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At the same time as the activity in Sochi, we have been involved with active dissemination in our locale. There have been close to two thousand people who have gone through our programs and have participated in circles and workshops. There were people who came regularly, time after time.

The question is: “What is our ultimate goal?” A person comes, sits in a circle; he likes the connection and unity; he even takes part in creating contact with us and later can act with us in partnership. But what is the goal? Is it that they will live better? What ultimately must happen?

Answer: The idea is that you must work on a person’s desire, on what he wants in his life. Accordingly, you must develop courses. Someone is interested in creating a family, another is interested in the education of children, a third is interested in working with his subordinates, a fourth is interested in mutual cooperation with the world, how can he be included in a society, more peaceful and healthy, etc. It is necessary to think about what he might “buy,” towards what his interests are directed.

Suppose that I go out to people. A hundred people are in front of me. I sit them in a shared general circle and go through a workshop in which they will begin to feel the right warm mutual cooperation between them. And it won’t be bad here if you ask them what they want in life, what is their inclination and yearning, what interests and concerns them. So I can easily determine in what kind of group I should include them.

This is because I have groups for the education of children, for creating a family, for improving productivity, to improve atmosphere in organizations, and more. But the direction of the group itself is not important to me because I teach them how to act with the right mutual partnership so that they will organize the right society among themselves.

The main thing for me is that they accept and perceive this right society as a field for discovering the unique force of nature where the characteristics of connection, mutuality, love, and warmth are created. They must feel this!

We must try to explain everything to them in a simple language, in the right, scientific language, with examples from daily life. Together with this, we summon a force that heals and calms us, that gives us a sensation of warmth, trust, and security. It creates everything that we greatly lack for a good existence. We need to bring them to it.

Essentially, without mentioning the Creator, we talk about His revelation, but we talk in words like these, so that they will understand all of this and no problems will pop up with them. It is necessary to develop our mutual cooperation with them specifically in this way, and the result of these courses will be the feeling of the general characteristic of nature: God is love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Shamati #5

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The Concealment That Precedes Revelation

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe lack only one thing, which is a need, in every state, to reveal that “There is none else besides the Creator.” At first, this statement is completely abstract because I only read about it in a book.

But later, it becomes closer and closer to me and I see that “There is none else besides Him” in everything that happens around me, in all the people I meet and in all events. The Creator is concealed behind all of that, Him and no one else.

“There is none else besides Him” in my thoughts means that it is He who put these thoughts into me, and I am only sensing them. And when it comes to how I perceive and react to these thoughts, here too “There is none else besides Him.”

Do I make the decision about how to react? Is there anything in my reaction that is from my own self, or is there only “None else besides Him?” By delving into these questions deeper and deeper, I come to adherence with Him.

If there is actually “None else besides Him” in any state, any place,  any thought, or in any of my supposed decisions or actions, it means that everything is determined by the Creator. In essence, I am simply discovering that He decides everything, and I only have one point from which I can establish that everywhere, in everything, the Creator is the one operating. This is how I reveal that I am completely adhered to Him.

Striving to constantly hold on to “None Else Besides Him” and to discover the Creator in each of our thoughts and desires, in heart and mind, brings us to adhesion with the Creator. Nothing more is required of us, this is the most important. We simply need to train ourselves to this attitude in all of our daily life.

How should one work with concealment, with the fact that there is me, there is the upper force, and concealment between us? How should I relate to this concealment?

In essence, concealment stems from my own desires that are intended for revealing the Creator. If they were not meant for revealing the Creator, then I would not sense concealment within them. Generally, I would not even feel them as relating to the Creator.

There are a great many desires, which at the moment, lay dormant inside of me, without manifesting themselves in any way. But in those desires where I consciously feel the Creator’s concealment, I have the possibility of revealing Him first and foremost, on the condition of working with them correctly. This concealment is the state that precedes revelation.

It follows that the main concealment occurs on the very principle of “None else besides Him,” forcing me to attribute actions to myself or to others. Accordingly, I divide reality into my own self and the world around me.

However, if I attributed all the actions that are in my mind, reason, and the surrounding still, vegetative, animate, and human world to the Creator, then I would feel the corrected Shechina (divinity). Only the point from which I see that everything is done by the Creator is called the point of restriction, the point of my “I.”

Without this point, there is no creature, but everything else, except it, belongs to the Creator. And if inside of me I see “None else besides Him,” and all around me “None else besides Him,” then I reveal that indeed “There is none else besides Him.” It is not difficult at all. We simply need to strengthen each other in this intention. If you agree, then let’s sign the contract of mutual guarantee. There is no need for anything else.

This principle of “There is none else besides Him” is the only thing that you need to implement. We perform many actions in this world, but all of that is simply in order to help us hold on in this intention of “None else besides Him” through any activity. There is nothing else that we need to do besides that.
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From the Workshop on 10/6/2014

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Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” – 09.21.14

Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Three,” “From We to Unified,” Lesson 5

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Three,” Workshop 5

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Three,” “Summary of the Convention,” Lesson 6

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Three,” Workshop 6

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Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” – 09.20.14

Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Two,” “Turning and Plowing the Evil Inclination,” Lesson 3

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Two,” Workshop 3

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Two,” “Transition from Me to We,” Lesson 4 

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day Two,” Workshop 4

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Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” – 09.19.14

Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day One,” “Conclusion of a Union”

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day One,” “About Thrill,” Lesson 1

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day One,” Workshop 1

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day One,” “About Circulation of Evil in Nature,” Lesson 2

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Day One,” Workshop 2

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Feeling The Common Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We felt a special state when we delved deep into the workshop and lost track of time; time passed and we didn’t even notice it. Does that mean that we drew the Light?

Answer: I don’t want to disappoint you, but this wasn’t the Light. Of course, if you were busy with something else that interested you, you would feel the exact same state. You shouldn’t care whether everything around you disappears or not, it is meaningless.

Do you see yourself inside the friends? Do you feel their movements as your own: their desires, intentions, direction, and changes? Do you feel the same inner sensations that the friend feels because there is one common heart beating inside you? We should try to examine this.

Question: The Creator waits for us to turn to Him. And turning to a friend, bestowing to him, should I expect something in return?

Answer: When you turn to a friend, you turn to the Creator. What do you expect in return? What do you want from Him? Do you want a certain inner connection and adhesion in order to attain the upper root and to discover how you delight Him by that? Everything is already included in such an action, but it should be dressed on specific figures, and in specific clothing.
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From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 2

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Convention In New Jersey “Day Three” – 08.10.14

Convention in New Jersey “Day Three,” Lesson 6

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Convention in New Jersey “Day Three,” Workshop 6

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Convention In New Jersey “Day Two” – 08.09.14

Convention in New Jersey “Day Two,” “Conversation During Technical Failure,” Lesson 3

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Convention in New Jersey “Day Two,” Workshop 2

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Convention in New Jersey “Day Two,” Lesson 4

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Convention in New Jersey “Day Two,” Workshop 3

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Convention in New Jersey “Day Two,” Workshop 5

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Convention in New Jersey “Day Two,” Lesson 5

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Convention In New Jersey “Day One” – 08.08.14

Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” Preparatory Lesson-2

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” Workshop Preparation

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” Workshop 1

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” Lesson 1

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” Lesson 2

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Turn History Towards A New Horizon

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What exactly helps to come to a warm feeling of connection in a circle?

Answer: Everyone perceives themselves equally. There are not those who are higher or lower, all want to connect, and this connection is possible only between equals. I accept everyone’s opinion, all hearts, all thoughts. It is important to me to be integrated into them and disappear there, to enter there and dissolve.

And that is what everyone thinks. Within a feeling like this we build one heart as one person. At the same moment when we attain a connection like this, we feel within this shared heart a unique power, an intelligence called the Torah. For we maintain the conditions of receiving the Torah: We have become like one man with one heart.

And so we feel that we have become one desire and one thought. This common desire and thought become for all of us a feeling of an elevated state, higher and loftier than our present corporeal life. This raises us above our families, above this land, above all material life.

We have already begun to feel that power that intentionally arranges for us an uncomfortable form like this in this earthly life, with incessant problems and wars, so that we will rise to His level. If from this moment on we continue by awakening ourselves to an even stronger connection and discover the higher force even more, we can advance without any external disturbances.

On the contrary, we are going on the good way all the time with “I will hasten it” (Achishena), in the way of the Light. And by raising ourselves upwards we attract all of the people of Israel after us and after them the whole world as if we are dragging a net behind us: Everyone joins in and rises.

Question: This is truly so, but the moment that I go out of the circle and look at the news, I immediately forget about the feeling of connection in the circle…. How is it possible to hold onto it and disseminate to all of the people of Israel?

Answer: Again it is necessary to gather for workshops again and again, and outside of your circle there will be thousands of other circles. Each one of them, through its action, influences the others and they influence it.

And so we discover that we can change the world only through such action of connection. We truly become the masters of our fate. But it is impossible to correct the situation through the elimination of a few terrorists and the destruction of their bases. We don’t change history with this, it repeats itself. Our connection is the only means for turning history towards a new horizon.
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From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14

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