Question: During the workshop, does the elimination of my “I” happen at the level of feelings? I felt that the thoughts that arise in the process of trying to rise emotionally prevented me.

Answer: Everything happens only in the feelings. If disturbances arise in the thoughts, there is not enough feeling. This means that you still need to move forward, deepening and relating to the thoughts of how to correct disturbances, that is, the correction of your yearning.

But you will never be able to advance through thoughts. They exist only for slightly modifying the feelings, focusing, relaxing, and removing. But everything takes place only in desires because desires are matter. Thus, thoughts are only intended to work with desires.
[76507]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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Question: When a person starts saying something, I form a certain attitude to it, perhaps, disregard, maybe, hate. How should I respond correctly to the friends’ words?

Answer: If I am in the group, then I am engaged in spiritual work, and that is why I must regard each of my friends as a great sage, as a great Kabbalist, as a representative of the Creator, who is in front of me now. And if he just, so to speak, is saying nonsense, I have to see it as I don’t understand what he says: I don’t understand. What he says is absolutely true, absolutely correct, divine ideas, but I don’t understand them; this is how I should accept and relate to him, not condescendingly, not like to a small child whom I love and so I forgive him, etc., and naturally not with hatred or impatience.

I must treat him as the greatest in my generation. I have to approach everything from below; this is the condition of my being in the group. Only then will I begin to feel that the Creator substituted these phrases on purpose so that I properly formatted myself and directed towards Him, to “there is none else besides Him.”
[76387]
From the Unity Day Around the World 4/22/04, Preparation to the Congress

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By eliminating our own “I” and giving the opportunity for the upper Light to flood everywhere, fill everything, and manifest everywhere, we are bringing enormous joy to the Creator, attaining our purpose, and starting to become equivalent with Him. We overcome our old nature, annul it and become nothing. This is what our spiritual development starts from, as a beginning, as a seed inside a mother who begins to develop it.

Right now we need to think about what pleasure that we bring Him so we would receive delight from that, so that the aspiration to please Him would become our fulfillment.

In this manner, we gradually enter the upper Light. It’s still barely discernible, but we are already figuring out which occurrences in our sensations we will go through in order to begin to reveal Him in action.

If my fulfillment will come from providing a place for the Creator to appear and reveal Himself, from delighting Him, from pleasing Him—then this will be all of my joy. Our work begins with this. From this starting point onward, we find ourselves in a state of “There is none else besides Him,” annulling ourselves and creating an opportunity only for Him to fill all of our feelings, all our thoughts. And indeed, in this case only He fulfills us.

We need to be confident that by moving in this way we’ll gradually start to enter into even greater contact with Him, we will begin to feel more clearly that which fulfills us. Out of nothingness, out of concealment, His properties and His ruling over us will be revealed more and more. We will begin to feel how desires and thoughts are created inside us. And we will go along with these desires and thoughts, understanding that everything comes from Him, and agree with it. The main thing is to show and reveal the Creator within us more and more through our common unity, through everyone in the world. We’ll try to bring up the whole world toward this state. And we’re confident that we’ll achieve this.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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The Creator is not attained without a group. On the other hand, a group without the Creator is not a group, but “a seat of the scornful.” So I, the group, and the Creator make up one whole. This is what is meant by “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are One.”

The Torah is the force that welds us into a group if we want to unite in spite of the repelling force. So the Giving of the Torah and mutual guarantee are connected. After all, mutual guarantee by itself is impossible. We don’t implement it but demand that it be implemented. This is called “the miracle of the exodus from Egypt.” We only participate in it; the changes are not performed by our power, but only according to our desire.

Our job is to want so badly, as much as we possibly can, and then the answer comes. At the same time we are already making the “golden calf,” like in the time of the Giving of the Torah. It happens, but we don’t forget to cry out! We have to be prepared and to demand the maximum, as much as we can. To demand and not to think about what will happen later. A general demand is required here. Then we will receive the power of unity, and if our egoism rises the next moment, as the system is programmed, it isn’t our problem.

Our collective problem is to demand the correction of the egoism that is given to us now, only that, and no more. A person is assessed according to the current circumstances. We must only feel what is necessary as much as we can in our readiness to attack.
[76357]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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Question: How can I prepare for a workshop correctly? What do I, as a participant, pass to the whole group during the workshop?

Answer: As a leader, I “throw out” a question, or an idea, or a state. We should discuss this state.

Everyone should think about what he would say about this state, and how he will complement, not repeat, but add to what has been said so it becomes a joint whole opinion on the given topic.

Question: What should I watch out for at the workshops? What is not allowed to say?

Answer: It’s not allowed to say negative things, but only positive things.

In general, the whole convention is based on the fact that we rise above all our negative issues: personal, group, and world. We think only about unity and live only by this. That is why we don’t touch any problems. We will mention them a little bit at the lectures, but the workshop is built only on ascent.

We talk only about the degree to which we have to rise. We imagine it; we constantly try to adapt to it. Cancelling ourselves, by the connection between us, we try to feel what this higher degree is, the Light that surrounds us, what quality this is, etc. That is, in no way you should fall below the level to which we want to ascend.

Question: How can we find out whether the workshop was successful or not?

Answer: The workshop was successful if people leave it with the feeling that they have obtained the most important thing.

Question: What can individuals or groups who connect with us virtually do during the workshops?

Answer: They should participate with us in the workshops.

He, who is sitting alone in front of the computer, will feel our atmosphere. He will listen to the focus group; we will broadcast it specifically for individuals.

As for the groups, they also discuss the same questions that I “throw out” to the groups in front of me. It doesn’t matter for me who is here in front of me or who is in the world.

The groups around the world discuss the topic of the workshop and do the same things as the groups in front of me. If he is alone, he listens to the focus group and seemingly participates together with it.
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From the Virtual Lesson 4/22/12, Preparation to the Congress

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We must understand that our training is the example of what we should be engaged in every day.

It’s not necessary to meet with the group for this. They can be organized 10-15 minutes before the lesson, as the group preparation for the lesson. They could be conducted and during the break between studies and at the end. This can be done at the end of a workday—at any time.

This regular training should bring us to the point that we will begin to feel during all our life that we are in the higher information field that creates everything in us and works through us. But a person doesn’t exist.

Then, we will begin to feel that a human being is a completely different structure, which we cannot imagine today. But we are already entering and approaching this.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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If the Creator is the only force that governs, maintains, and enlivens everything, then even the words that I utter, the thoughts and desires that arise in me now, all of it is also Him. Hence I need to unite with what passes through me now and comes out from me to others. All of it is all His work as well; He is carrying all of it out. I’m not here. I am only what perceives itself filled with the might, force, intention, and desire of the Creator who thereby addresses others.

I need to connect and to merge with what is happening inside of me now, to feel that I’m entirely filled by Him because there is no other force besides Him. And when I try to eliminate my own “Self” within me, that everything is only Him, this is exactly when I find my new “Self,” based on “there is none else besides Him.” That is, everything that I think about, it is all Him.
[76355] 
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 2

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Question: What can I get from the friends’ words during the workshops, but can’t get from the lesson with the teacher?

Answer: When the teacher speaks everyone is silent, that is, they agree with what he says. There is a plus and a minus in this.

There is no internal work during this time because you are involuntarily suppressed, silenced by the knowledge, the height of the teacher as he is initially higher than you.

When you are together with the friends, you are working with someone who can be higher, lower, or at the same level with you. And here, you have a lot of work on lowering yourself, removing your “I,” canceling yourself. And in addition, you need to consider any of your friends to be the greatest. In this way, you “adjust” yourself to the Creator, prepare yourself to go by bestowal above reception, faith above reason.
[76384]
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012    

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Now we desire only one thing: We wish that all of creation, meaning us, will not present any obstacles for the manifestation of the upper Light, so it will fill us without any resistance on our part. We want to make such a restriction on ourselves to give Him all the space for His revelation. At the same time we don’t exist, we are just transparent so that one single force would be passing through us and would fill us.

This is the first condition, restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), from which to begin our meeting with the Creator when for the first time we really feel for real that “There is None Else Beside Him.”

We are transparent; we don’t exist because we have annulled our “I,” our egoism, and so now the Creator can fill everything.
[76353]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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Question: How can women create a strong common desire to maximize the ability to support the men during the convention?

Answer: To this day, we cannot explain to the women that they’re doing spiritual work just as men do, the only difference being that the style of their interconnection is somewhat different from the connection between the men.

With men, it all starts with a very simple friendship, with shared activities. They swim together in the sea, sit around, share meals, and study. With women this connection is much more complicated. But when they set a higher goal for themselves and understand that for the sake of this goal they need to unite, then they can accomplish it and achieve the goal. That is, the exalted goal becomes like a master for them, and they’re prepared to unite for its sake.

Question: Do women need to prepare for the convention in some special way? Perhaps we should do it together somehow or correspond with each other? Or should we only unite internally?

Answer: The importance of unification should be the same in women as in men; this is first. And second, they need to understand that they also need to achieve unity. Women are able to unite for the sake of a higher goal, and they need to explore and scrutinize this possibility.

The Bible tells about how Moshe’s sister Miriam united all the women together before exiting Egypt, how the women worked on themselves in Egypt, and how it was precisely that feminine part which nurtured Moses, that is, the force that then pulls us out of Egypt.

Question: What should women expect from the workshops?

Answer: The women, like the men, need to discuss all the details of unification. Let them try to do that; let them discover what is for them and what isn’t. In this manner, they will find their own path in a practical way since otherwise it won’t work.

On one hand, women ask: “Why not?” But when you offer them the work of unification, they say: “This isn’t for us!” And so a problem arises. And it’s unclear what can be done, what action to take, and how to approach this problem?

Women need to unite for a common cause, like in a huge number of existing women’s organization, where women can unite in order to achieve something not between, but outside of themselves. So let them unite in order to achieve something outside themselves as well, and for that purpose they can connect—not against anyone, but for the sake of accomplishing something. They can do it!

Question: Do women need to unite in order to achieve the goal or in order for the men to reach it?

Answer: They need to unite to attain the result together. Let them clarify this, and they will see the middle point into which they need to fit exactly to complement the men. And in no way is their work any less than the work of men; it’s actually greater.

Question: How should a woman prepare her husband for the convention?

Answer: You wash, dress, and feed him, then hand him his backpack, and let him go to school. I’m speaking absolutely seriously: Prepare him like you would a child. That is, let him know that you expect great accomplishments from him, that you hope that throughout the convention he’ll really go in the right direction with good and necessary thoughts. That’s how you get him ready. When it comes to that, a woman has what’s called the wisdom of life.

Question: How do men work correctly with women’s support during the workshops?

Answer: Men shouldn’t pay attention to it yet. Later, when we really become properly interconnected, we’ll feel the women’s influence, pressure on us.

It’s good when we can sense that; it obliges us. Let’s hope that we’ll be able to feel that too.
[76299] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012     

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