Entries in the 'Workshops' Category

Reborn

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When using the integral method, we will reveal positive relationships between us and special states: kindness, intimacy, the meaning of life, and a sense of the next level of our development. However, we know that interaction among people causes various forms of conflict and aggressive behavior, such as quarrels, arguments, and so forth.

Answer: Our entire society is built on comparisons, and we must find a common denominator. You have your own ideas, goals, thoughts, tastes, and culture. We each have our own habits. Let’s figure out what we have in common.

Of these two circles, we’ll find one common segment, but large areas still will stay detached. This is my personal territory, there is yours, and we never will understand each other while we hold onto them.

For example, a variety of people from the same society share one culture that is in fact, quite different for its higher and lower segments, for educated people and common people. We see that there is a huge difference in their considerations, attitudes to life, inner codes, relationships within families, among neighbors, work ethics, and so on.

So, it will be very hard for us to arrive at a unified conclusion here. People change just like the society we live in constantly changes. That’s why we always will encounter problems.

Integral upbringing is built on the foundation that we must rise above ourselves. We cross out everything we were used to before today. Not only should we cross out everything we previously had, such as when spouses who decide to start with a clean slate to start a new chapter in their lives, but we also must realize that we have to continue rising above our mundane properties. In other words, our egoistic desire, which represents our internal essence, isn’t involved in the connections between us.

So, it does not matter what inborn qualities we have, nor does what we had been receiving from the environment for 20 to 50 years of our lives, wherever we currently are, or whatever “viruses” we have. It doesn’t mean a thing!

We want to rise to the next level, to the place where we connect with each other and where differences and similarities are not important at all. Let’s say that we sit in a circle and discuss something. We should care less about our personal interests, as if we don’t have them at all.

The only thing that we should have in common is the search of a communal basis that will become the foundation for a totally different type of society, an innovative paradigm, a different dimension in which none of us exists separately, where we represent one common system within which it’s impossible to identify ourselves as “I” since it will be integral and analog. We pursue this state from the very beginning.

That’s why, no matter who comes to the discussion table—nor it is relevant if the tables are small or big enough to encircle the entire Earth and accommodate seven billion people—all of us must search for commonalities that will lead us to our next state, to the main, crucial point from which we will continue growing.

Then, earthly things that we have been accumulating for thousands of years—things that we are comprised of, the society we live in, or anything else that causes contradictions among us—won’t interest us anymore and will just fall down. We must take a new step and cut ourselves off from the place where we are now.

It’s impossible to have five people who are “for” something and one who is against it. That means we will become involved in criticism. There is nothing to criticize! Everything we have dealt with so far is now in a state of crisis and is not suitable for further use. That’s why we simply “wash our hands” and become born anew.

Question: Modern people are built in a way that if they are given only positive information…

Answer: It’s not positive! This is a search, an affliction, an internal tension, and mutual scrutiny, but all of the above should be done only for the sake of the next integral level that we must reach.

I cannot take my current principles, views, criteria, and values with me there because the next realm is totally different. It’s a matrix into which we all are mutually included and where we are completely interconnected with each other. It’s the n-dimension, a space in which I lose the notion of myself. It’s impossible to have my opinion or your outlook there. First, we must reach the connection among us, and then we’ll decide what to do next.

Differences among us still will remain, but they will come from a new level, from the next state. Each of us will be adding much more to become included in the integral mechanism. It still will move forward, but none of this will happen if we continue using our prior egoistic habits and properties. We shouldn’t take them with us.

The animal developmental state is over, and a new step named “A Man” (Adam) will soon begin. It will orient us only toward unification and integration. By no means will it have an egoistic nature as it did in the past, but rather it will be built on the basis of integration, and each of us simply will lose themselves in a collective mechanism.
[82573]
From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 5/28/12

Related Material:
My Role In A Group
Material For Advancing
Hurricanes Warn People

Saving The Friends From Concerns

Saving The Friends From ConcernsQuestion: What does mutual guarantee mean? What does mutuality in the group entail?

Answer: Mutual guarantee is when we provide each friend with an absolutely complete feeling of security and confidence to such an extent that we cover his entire egoism and he doesn’t need anything. That is, we give him our respect and love, and treat him in such a way that he no longer thinks about himself and automatically becomes free for the work for everybody.
[93685]
From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Workshop 2

Related Material:
Mutual Guarantee Is The Precondition For Our Spiritual Birth
Mutual Guarantee Is A Law Without Loopholes
The Hands That Hold You Up Over The Abyss

Get Ready To Draw The Upper Light!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What actions are most effective for drawing the upper Light at the convention in Novosibirsk?

Answer: The most effective activities at the convention are workshops. There will be a lecture or talk before every workshop. We study a certain topic there, and afterward conduct a workshop based on this topic, and then questions and answers. This is the main “package,” which will be held twice a day. Thus, we will have six lessons in three full days.

In addition, there will be other very effective events. The most important of them are gathering of friends, necessary for “warming up” 15-30 minutes before the morning lesson. Then, there will be meals, held in the form of gatherings with speeches, group presentations and so on. In general, the convention will include plenty of activities. But gathering of friends and workshops are the key things.

The most important thing is your connection and I am within it. Together, we will draw the upper Light. So, get ready!
[94105]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/25/12

Related Material:
All For The Sake Of Unity!
A Never-Ending Workshop
A Miracle That Is About To Occur

Why Is The Creator Constantly Shaking Us?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are under the constant influence of the one and only force of the Creator—there is none else besides Him. Why does He always confuse us? We sleep, and then all of a sudden we wake up, get inspired, rejoice, and then again have no idea where to go. We feel like we want to stay close to our friends, then we prefer to be as far from them as possible, staying away from the group. Then we are either in high spirits or suddenly become sad. What does He want of us? Why does He constantly toss us from side to side? Why doesn’t He give us concrete and correct directions on how to advance?

Religions dictate: “Do this and that, and everything will be fine. Don’t do that or you’ll be in trouble.” Everything is clear there. This is the way we teach our children: “Stop doing this, it’s bad. You’ll succeed if you do what I am telling you.”

Everything that’s going on in the world is more or less clear to us except our own spiritual work. We are doing something that is utterly elusive. We are in constant confusion. Something that we clearly understood yesterday is totally vague to us today and we can’t even come back to it.

Why does the Creator turn us into people who swing from one state to another, from certain conclusions to others? If He is One, Unique and Unified, if He is the only force that governs us, then where do our diverse states come from? Why does He do everything in His power to confuse and disorient us and bring us to a state when our desires and thoughts are of no help at all?

Question: Why does He do that? If, say, this single force is throwing us from side to side, then why does He evoke such states in us when the more we advance, the more doubts and troubles we go through? Does He really want us to come closer to Him? Why doesn’t He want us to become smarter and stronger? There is a goal, a method, everything! Then why do we experience ever new opposing sensations and opinions? What’s going on in general?! Why does He need all of this?

Answer: The Creator constantly shakes us in order to make us understand that we are helpless and to motivate us to eventually appeal to Him. Why does He constantly shake us as if we’re in a washing machine? He does that to make us lose the ground that we stand on and hold onto Him.…
[92896]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Workshop 1

Related Material:
Clinging To The Creator Through The Group
The Role Of The Group Is To Discover The Creator
The First Article, Which Is The Beginning Of Everything

The Uniting Enemy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should we do in the integral group when a harmful person shows up and the moderator has to throw him out? Should we leave such a person in the group?

Answer: We can let him stay only if he can cause useful damage, since above it we can clarify our connection and, our love: “How should we place ourselves against him?” Without an enemy it is very hard to unite, the enemy unites. So on the whole, we have to see and to support such a state of destruction, but to a certain limit.

I think that the group will see the advantage in that and see that it all happens under the influence of nature that intentionally works this way. Just as we have to rise above the inner ego that grows in us, we also have to rise above the growing external ego.

Question: Does this mean that we should educate such people, cope with them and not expel them?

Answer: Not cope with them, love them! Honor them for helping us advance.
[91896]    
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 10/3/12.

Related Material:
Material For Advancing
Rising Above Your “Animal”
Love Conquers All      

We Don’t Impose Ourselves On Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the discussions at the round tables some of the participants in the integral group couldn’t overcome their growing ego and were much more active in the discussions than necessary. It looked artificial and fanatical. How should we work in such cases?

Answer: We must agree in advance what the limits should be, and we cannot cross them, and most important is to subdue ourselves before others. It’s the same thing that we do in the group.

Under no circumstances should you show that you are smart alecks and that you have some method hidden in your pocket! You shouldn’t scare people by showing that you are advanced, since by that you suppress people and don’t allow them to grow. You mustn’t do that!

There mustn’t be any ego here! You have to plan things accurately in advance and to clearly determine how to process this method among you, so that you will sit quietly in the circles like among kids.

A good teacher is someone who pushes a kid invisibly so that the child can advance by himself afterward. He assumes, understands, builds, and does everything by himself, even without realizing that someone is guiding him; this is true learning.

So you have to prepare for the roundtable very seriously and there is no room for ego here. It’s very bad. You will ruin everything by that. You have to extinguish such cases and to set an example for one another. Otherwise your work will be corrupt.
[92227]
From a Virtual Lesson 10/28/12

Related Material:
Unripe Point In The Heart
Upbringing Works On Every Age
To Give Does Not Mean to Impose

Georgia Convention – 11.06.12

Georgia Convention, Lesson 1

[media 1]   [media 2]

Georgia Convention, Workshop 1

[media 3]   [media 4]

Georgia Convention, Lesson 2

[media 5]   [media 6]

Georgia Convention, Workshop 2

[media 7]   [media 8]

Georgia Convention, Lesson 3

[media 9]   [media 10]

Rapid Movement

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It seems that along the process of the integral game, there will be people who will be easily impressed and who will suddenly say: “Oh, I have entered the general state of mind, and now I will teach all of you.”

Answer: In an integral group there cannot be leaders. Everything we discuss is according to the guidance of the moderator. This is one thing.

Second, a person who truly attains the upper world becomes softer and even more concealed. He never speaks about abstract matters; he can tell you jokes or joke about other subjects, but on the whole jokes are a distraction from the truly serious matters, since he is actually in them himself and he doesn’t reveal this.

Question: I am talking about later stages of the game, if we imagine humanity playing the game for 10-20 years …

Answer: First, we don’t play for such a long time since on the way, the recognition of the connection and unity in the group takes place within a couple of days up to a week, it is a very fast movement.

So if humanity begins to deal with it, then within several days the world will totally change. You cannot even imagine that!

People will gladly go where they are told to: to arrange something, to work somewhere. They won’t need anything that is redundant. They will become rational in their attitude to themselves and to the world, to a reasonable, normal way of life.

The main thing is the feeling of connection and unity that gives a person an upper spirit, a mind.
[91893]
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 03/10/12 

Related Material:
The Right To Feel Offended
Implementing A Five Year Plan In Three Days
A Fight For Leadership?

The Main Thing – To Strive For Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the correct way to act during the workshops?

Answer: One should act according to Rabash’s writings about the assembly of the group: A person has to lower himself to the group and imagine himself in the assembly of completely corrected people who may not seem so to him as I see them through my egoistic filter as uncorrected to the extent of my corruption.

I have to actively participate in the discussion even if I don’t have anything to say. They will understand and support me.

The main thing is to aspire that the soul will be one whole, to the center of the group, not forgetting that these “ten” in the world, along with all of us, are all united in a spiritual body seeking to reach the first similarity with the Light, the same property, mutual bestowal!

As soon as we reach this level, we sense the fulfillment from the Light, from mutual bestowal, and from connection—we are born as a spiritual object.

Good luck!
[91426]

Related Material:
Everyone…Everyone…Everyone….
Effort and Advancement
An Agreement With The Creator

Everyone, Everyone, Everyone…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For four days in a row we held workshops with different groups of people. But the most interesting thing is that the intensity of our working in a single breath united our entire group. I don’t know about the people for whom we held the seminars but we changed dramatically during the course of these events.

Answer: I’ll tell you that I see myself changing depending upon how the group is changing. After all, I didn’t go through these actions because I had a different, a more individual method of attaining the upper world, which has been used by Kabbalists for thousands of years. And here when a group is experiencing practical unification and I am on the sidelines participating at least somewhat, I feel how good and productive this work is.

This is why I understand you and I advise everyone who is listening to us today to try in any way possible to participate in our workshops.
[91389]
From the Virtual Lesson 10/21/12

Related Material:
Light That Is Dressed In Simpler Words
Workshops Are The Fastest Means To Advance
Workshops Are The True Realization Of Kabbalah