Entries in the 'World' Category

There Shouldn’t Be Any Descents!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: After the WE! Convention how can we maintain ourselves in the same state that we achieved there, since usually a descent always comes afterward?

Answer: We cannot allow ourselves to get into a descent, similar to how a mother cannot say she is sick when she has a baby in her arms. There are situations in life where necessity eclipses everything. Only if the mother is on her death-bed should someone else take care of her baby.

Likewise, in our case we do not have time to take a break, to engage in idle talk, or to get into descents. The world around us is developing very quickly and we are falling behind, but we are obligated to walk along at its rate.

More and more we are starting to feel just how much all of the bad things happening in the world are connected to us because we are falling behind with our correction. Therefore, I don’t even allow myself to have thoughts about a descent after the convention. This is impossible!

Besides, until the summer we will still go through a row of important events, including conventions in Italy, Spain, and Moscow. We have to unite all together and prepare for them. Therefore, we don’t have any breaks to take since everything is very compressed in time. And that’s a good thing because it corresponds to the speed at which changes are happening in the world.
From the lesson on 3/25/11

Related Material:
There Is No Time To Be Depressed
Salvation Will Come In A Blink Of The Eye
There Should Be No Downfalls!

http://www.laitman.com/category/convention/

Pharaoh Coming Out From The Shadows

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn our world the only thing we know to do is to receive. Therefore, without the science of Kabbalah the world would slide down to total self-destruction. If not for the notions of the Creator and creation drawn from Kabbalah, if not for the opportunity to attract the upper Light, the force that corrects us, if there was only this world in front of us, only the earth rotating in cosmic space and us on its surface driven by our nature, then we would exterminate life here over the next few decades. This is confirmed by scientific research, which can definitely be trusted. The earth’s resources are limited, and after eating them all up, we would die of starvation.

In our world there is no solution to this process. We are deliberately being led to an irreversible state in which we will have no means of salvation left. The purpose is for us to reveal our Pharaoh, our egoism, which destroys us and does not allow us to do anything. As a result of this process, all of humanity has to feel a need for the Creator.

Research shows that over the next few years the world will face an extremely cruel lack of fresh water and other necessary resources. Theoretically, by the end of this century we will finish off the remains and will have many chances to die. And there is no solution. The world’s best minds cannot find it. But they are so smart that they can see a dead-end that has no way out.

And indeed, how can we come out of it? We do not have a chance of restricting our evil inclinations. You cannot advise people to consume less due to lack of any other choice. If everyone starts receiving the minimum wage and no more than that, then starting tomorrow no one will be able to make a move. And what would be the point of that? That is exactly what happened in Russia after the revolution. If motivation were to disappear, then the world would freeze. Even if you gave out medals for selfless work, it wouldn’t help.

I have to feel that another person is lower than me in some way, that I have earned more or have attained something greater. If I don’t have this, then what compensation can you offer me? If my neighbor receives 5000 dollars, then I need at least 5001. But if everything is equal, then a person just can’t live that way.

That is why today we are facing a problem that does not have a solution in our world. We are unable to achieve balance with nature. Eventually everyone will understand what is a global, integral world and what is homeostasis. There are many movies and research on this topic which all talk about how we have to practice moderation. The only problem is that we are unable to hold ourselves back.

Pharaoh comes forth from the shadows inside of us, obstructing all attempts to tame our appetite. Soon this will come to the surface: People will look at themselves, seeing how they are powerless, walking toward death and not being able to stop. Baal HaSulam describes this through an allegory: The angel of death brings you a drop of poison on the tip of a sword and you open up your mouth to swallow it and die. You are unable to overcome yourself and are waiting for this final drop.

That is why the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah is necessary. An exemplary group is needed, capable of demonstrating the true solution to the world. This group has to become “a Light for the nations” and from above to pour upon them the spiritual mind and feeling. Otherwise the world has no chance.

Similarly, in our particular case there are also no chances. The difference is that we ourselves want to feel this dead-end state because we know that after that the upper Light will become revealed to us, being a new force, the force of bestowal that will pull us onto a different level. And we must do the same thing for the world even though people are unable to aspire to this ahead of time.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/11, Preparation to Going Out From Egypt

Related Material:
Egyptian Slavery Means You Have No Right To Bestow
The World Is In Danger
Ruling Over Nature

A Place You Won’t Find On The Map

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe worldwide WE! Convention that was held in New Jersey was the first convention where we already felt that it doesn’t matter where we are. People felt the same thing no matter where they were.

And it wasn’t because we learned to do this in some way, but because we ascended above the net of our material, virtual connection, and through the virtuality that connects us, above it, we started feeling the spiritual net of connection.

Now we continue this convention further from the same degree that we attained. We attach all the difficulties and problems that become revealed to us to the same ascent. There cannot be an ascent without difficulties because it is always difficult to ascend, just like climbing up a mountain. That is why we are now revealing various problems, depression, confusion, various questions that demand to be resolved, and work among us that has to rise to a qualitatively new level.

We are about to have a large convention in Moscow, and before that two meetings with our groups in Italy and Spain. It is necessary to prepare for this convention. Otherwise, why have it at all? We have to develop a great, powerful desire and at the next convention to already see ourselves on a completely different qualitative level compared to the previous.

What we attained at the convention in America is good. But the next convention has to give us the sensation that we are in one place, rather than in different places in our sensation. This is our goal.

At the previous convention we sat by our computer screens, slightly ascending above this virtual connection. Almost all of us felt how in every corner of the world, at all the mirror conventions, people had the same feeling of joy and inspiration, and the same thoughts. But nevertheless, people felt that they were in different places—in Israel, in New Jersey, in Toronto, in Moscow, in Sao-Paulo, and other cities and countries, as if they were all together.

Now we have to attain the sensation that we aren’t located in different places, but in one spiritual space, where we are connected together. We have to turn off the “as if,” the virtual illusion, and attain the state of being all together. There are no boundaries or distances for sensations and this is what we have to achieve.

This is our goal at the next convention: We have to completely separate from the geographic locations and from the virtual connection. True, all of this does exist. But above all of this, we will very quickly attain the sensation that we are in one spiritual place, rather than in any material location. This is what we should attain at the next convention.

And now we have to work on this. If this is the goal we have placed before us, then we must form a common desire, the need to attain it. We have to talk about this, work in this direction, and maybe write several songs and organize several events and friends’ assemblies.

Everything has to be done for the sake of this goal: to be in one place, meaning in one desire, because “place” in spirituality means “desire.” This is already called “as one man with one heart.” This is what we have to reach, and it happens gradually, step by step, from one convention to the next. This is the goal.
[40215]
From the lesson on 4/8/11, “Preface to Pticha”

Related Material:
There Is No Time To Be Depressed
From The Virtual Illusion To The Spiritual Reality
Available Only Now – A Spiritual Loan At Profitable Conditions!

What Do Columbia, Tbilisi, Chile, Haifa, And Odessa Have In Common?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe higher the frequency at which we make our choice, again and again, in favor of the point in the heart, in favor of unity, the faster is our path. When we get together at large conventions and become included in one another with our desires, then I perform one action and all the others perform a multitude of other actions which join mine. If I remained alone, I would never complete this work!

However, the Creator helps us. He divided the huge desire He created into many parts. When each part carries out its work, it adds that work to everyone else.
It turns out that if there are say 800 of us, and over the course of several days at a convention each of us makes 100 actions, then it will turn out that each one made 80,000 actions. That’s because we are all connected together! And besides the people present in the convention hall, there are many more friends all over the world who join our broadcasts.

Before coming to teach this lesson, I received letters and greetings from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Israel, Germany, and many other places. Look at how many people have gathered at our centers worldwide. Right now on the screen we see Tel Aviv, the Galilee, Rehovot, Minsk, Columbia, Donetsk, Tbilisi, Chile, Odessa, Beer Sheba, Haifa, Ashkelon, Hadera, and many more.

There are many of us and if we use the days of the convention correctly, then we will leap onto the next level and will possibly realize the law that is called, “He made efforts and found!” This can happen. It all depends on us.

If a large amount of people join us and each person includes everyone, then each person receives a sufficient force. We have worked on our unity very well and have thus acquired knowledge. We studied and prepared for the whole year, constantly discussing that there is only “we,” that we are together, and that the spiritual world becomes revealed only in the connection among us. So let us hope that we will be able to implement that unity.
From the 1st lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

Related Material:
Every Person Is Important For Perfection
You Can’t “Fall Asleep” And Then “Wake Up” At The End Of Correction
If You Don’t Succeed Here, Then You Won’t Succeed Anywhere

Let Them Get Wiser

Dr. Michael LaitmanYou cannot turn to the masses with our spiritual message. It is completely not intended for them. On the contrary, they do not have to connect to it because otherwise you will already seem “corrupted” to them. Your goal is opposite to the masses. It is written about this, “The opinion of the Torah is contrary to the opinion of the layman.”

By now we have done enough to disseminate the science of Kabbalah to those with a point in the heart all over the whole world and in different languages. Whoever has a point in the heart will always be able to find us.

Now our problem is to educate humanity as a whole. This is the beginning of the general correction. Until now we have disseminated Kabbalah to the people called “Israel” in order to gather them from the whole world. But now the time has come to do what Baal HaSulam writes in the article “Messiah’s Horn”: to disseminate the science of Kabbalah to the nations. And at the first stage, that means doing so without mentioning the world Kabbalah.

We have to bring people to a new understanding and sensation which will enable them, on the next stage, to agree with what the science of Kabbalah says about this. Let them get a bit wiser. The Rambam says that the essence has to be revealed gradually to the “women, children, and slaves.” And we are acting according to what this great Kabbalist wrote.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/11, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Man’s Heart Between Two Flames
Our Main Trump Card
Pushing The World Toward Correction

Every Person Is Important For Perfection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It’s easy to love my friends who are studying the science of Kabbalah together with me, but I can’t do that with my colleagues at work. How should I treat them and all other people in the world?

Answer: In principle, we have to treat everyone as parts of our soul. That is how I have to think about everyone, including the greatest villains. They are outside of me in the world because all of these desires and qualities inside of me are not corrected yet. Therefore, externally I have to treat them with tolerance, understanding that this is the path of correction. The time will come when they too will join this path.

The common soul, the single created creature consists of many parts. Some are more important and some are less, just like in our physical body, which is built exactly according to the structure of the soul.

The soul also has a part called “body,” which is the common desire that’s divided into many systems and sub-systems: the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and other important systems that are interconnected and without which the body could not exist. Some of these systems can be artificially recreated, but they have to be present in the body. On the other hand, there are systems that do not necessarily have to be present in the body, for example, the limbs, muscles, and bones.

The common soul has parts that are particularly important, the brain and heart, as well as those that are less important but still necessary for existence. The brain and heart were mostly corrected from Adam until our time by the lineage of Kabbalists that we know about and whom we study.

Now the phase of the common correction has set in when besides the brain and heart we are beginning to correct the lungs, kidneys, liver, spleen, and so on. These are important parts, but less significant than the brain and the heart. People who study Kabbalah belong to these parts.

All the rest of humanity belongs to, for example, the muscles, bones, and limbs, which are systems that are not necessary for the organism’s existence, but they are necessary for its fullness. That is how we should treat them, and in essence they make up 90% of the entire soul.

They cannot act independently. They cannot feel a yearning for spirituality, but only function according to orders coming to them from the brain and the heart through us, the various important organs. This does not lower their significance because if we are talking about one common soul, then the absence of one tiny cell disrupts perfection.

Therefore, everyone is important and at the end of correction every person is as valuable as everyone. That is the law of a closed system’s perfection. We study this principle on the example of an analog system: It has an entrance and an exit, and if anything is disrupted inside of it then it does not produce the necessary result.

However, there is a difference during the time of correction. Parts that are more important are corrected earlier, and after that the less important parts are corrected according to a hierarchy. Therefore, don’t wait for the world to hear and understand what we are doing because billions of people belong to the passive part. They will join the process because they will see that it’s impossible to do anything else. That is how the world will be corrected. People might be extraordinarily smart or developed, they might be great scientists, artists, and cultural activists, yet be completely deaf to spirituality. That is how we should treat everyone.

Only those who come to the study of Kabbalah through various paths belong to the inner system. Therefore, we have to value every person here because he was chosen by the Creator to be part of an important organ of the common system and is therefore a great asset. Meanwhile, others might not be so important. Even the children of many Kabbalists did not take the same path because every person has his own part in the system and it is not passed down hereditarily. So arm yourself with patience.

The main work takes place among those who belong to our world group, but externally we can also act to advance the world. By disseminating materials about the future, about what might happen, and about the solution offered by the science of Kabbalah, we prepare people to the extent it is possible. However, true work with them lies in the fact that as a result of our unity, they will feel a certain awakening.

What will they awaken to? To join us externally. They will want to be involved and serve the process of correction as much as possible. There are already people like this now and their mission is very much worthy of respect.
[39763]
From the 2nd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

Related Material:
The Representatives Of The Upper World
Equality In A Global Family
Everyone Is Equal In Spirituality

Nature Is Above Logic

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are being given an example of how the world can change. A half a million people gather at the main square of a nation’s capital and demand a new government. Their protest causes the government to collapse. Could anyone believe this would be possible? After all, this is above logic!

This is a very good example of what can happen to any government. If this happened with the dictatorships in East Africa or in Asia, then it can certainly occur in Europe and in the US. It merely seems to us that is won’t come to pass.

Currently our nature is revealing a new means for social change, and it will lead to a great deal of turbulence. We think: How could people switch from an egoistic consumer society, such as it is in the US, to a society based on equal distribution? The government can’t do it because it is tied down by obligations toward everyone that supports it. It has to provide them with the promised standard of living and therefore can’t change itself or its life philosophy.

But when a half a million people come out to protest, a government collapses. It’s not due to the lack of power because the dictators have enough power to destroy the protestors with a couple of bombs. However, they’re unable to do so because nature has already changed, the society has evolved, and the times are different. There’re things a person can’t do not even knowing why.

This is how it happens and hence great changes are awaiting us.
[39760]
From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

Related Material:
A Time Of Change
The World Has Lost its Head
Being Born Into A New World

A Real Virtual Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to organize an inner environment among us instead of the external, common human environment. Then our environment will offset the external influence and will influence us of its own accord, “brainwashing” us and intensively “advertising” spiritual ascent as the most important thing we have to accomplish in life.

Otherwise I will leave this world without any use. An animal lived and then died. The body has “strolled about” as long as it was allotted and then it decomposed, and in the meantime nothing was accomplished. The point instilled in it from the spiritual world remained a mere point and did not develop.

Everything depends on the importance of the environment. There is nothing more important than organizing a virtual environment that is warm and heart-felt. This is the most important thing. Otherwise my thoughts will disconnect from the right direction at every second and maybe the next time I disconnect, I will never return to it again.

After all, if I am given over to my own power, then I will never return to thoughts about spirituality. I stopped to think about it for the first time because the Creator, the upper force awakened me. The upper Light awakens Reshimot and that is how my spiritual Reshimo awakened, causing me to feel a desire that turns toward the Light. But this only happened once. Maybe the Creator will awaken the person once or twice more, but all the rest depends on us. I have to build an environment as fast as possible which will become a womb for me to raise my soul.

The spiritual environment has to be as numerous as possible, but more importantly, it must be as powerful and close-knit as possible. Baal HaSulam writes about this, and so does Rabash. The main force should be quality, not quantity. Quality determines everything.

The quality of the influence depends on how much we worry about one another, how inspired we become by one another, how much we return to the fundamental principles of the environment and take care to ensure that no one forgets about the goal. The thoughts of the friends are passed over to me and therefore, the more I inspire them, the more they inspire me in response.

I will not be able to awaken to spirituality unless I awaken the group to it. The group will inspire me also if I aspire it. We must always work in this closed circle.

That is why the virtual environment is important for us. We have to create a portal that will enable us to maintain unceasing contact with one another. It’s not accidental that communication means have been developed in the world enabling us to constantly stay in touch, to constantly see what is happening in our virtual environment.

I am dreaming about a virtual environment in which I will be able to constantly communicate and be in touch with you, to feel you by means of speech and music, 24 hours a day, non-stop. Then we will constantly give each other the realization of the importance of the goal, love, connection, and the right direction, and that is how we will hold ourselves in spiritual ascent and consolidation all together until we become a single vessel, one soul.

Let us hope that we will implement this platform and will stay in constant connection with it.
[39707]
From the 5th lesson at the WE! Convention 4/1/11

Related Material:
The Only Use Of This World
Open The Door To Tomorrow
An Oasis In The Internet Desert

North America “WE” Convention – 04.03.11

New Jersey “WE” Convention, Evening Lesson 6
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

New Jersey “WE” Convention, Evening Lesson 7
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

New Jersey “WE” Convention, Evening Lesson 8
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

New Jersey “WE” Convention, Cultural Evening
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

New Jersey “WE” Convention, Unity Sessions
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Whole World Depends On These Three Days


Question: What inner work do we have to perform during this Convention, considering the entire weight of the responsibility for the whole world that is incumbent upon us?

Answer: We really do bear enormous responsibility for the whole world. But there are two components to this.

The most important thing is the connection between us. We have to understand that since the whole world is interconnected, then it doesn’t even matter how successful or not our address to the world is. First of all, the unity among us is definitely transferred to everyone.

That’s because all of humanity is connected as one. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “600,000 souls” that there is just one soul in the world. That means all humanity, all seven billion people, are connected together into one whole, into a single organism, the body of the common soul.

This organism grew to the extent that all of its parts, the particular souls, developed. Each of them developed until its ten material Sefirot. But now we have discovered that the entire organism is connected into one, as if the connection among everyone has closed up.

That is why people in whom the point in the heart has been revealed serve as the brain of this whole system. This is written at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”: The whole world divides into the inner and outer parts. The inner part is we, people with the point in the heart.

If we connect with each other through a good, proper connection, this will expand to the whole world. Then, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” this will splash out into the whole world, like when the right command comes from the brain to the whole body. Then everyone will take this command and start changing. This is called internal dissemination.

Whether we want it or not, our unity is transferred to the whole world and the world changes for the better. All other people also advance toward unity. After all, they simply live their earthly lives, not knowing where their thoughts and desires come from.

That is our inner dissemination, which happens without any words and without coming out to the world externally. However, in order to prepare people to be receptive to this so they will react to us faster, and besides, to give them the opportunity to work and act together with us, which will unite us even more, we also work on external dissemination for everyone.

It turns out that through our inner dissemination we intend for our unity to also be transferred to everyone else. This is enough. In the external dissemination we organize among ourselves and this gives us a field of activity, as well as unites us by giving us an additional, external reason to unite. That is how we act in the world.

However, without any doubt, the unity among us determines everything and in this regard it cannot be compared to anything else. Let us hope that over the course of these three days we will attain a new degree of unity. I don’t have any doubts about this because even now we are in this state and will be able to feel spirituality at least for a short time, to feel what it means to be connected in our hearts and thoughts.

All of this depends on every person’s inner efforts. Try to think that we all already desire to feel the unity between us, not to be in the bodies, but to immerse deeper inside, into the realm of our desires so they will all unite together into one whole desire. If we attain this, then we will feel the Upper Light that reigns inside of this desire and will experience the eternal flow of life. This is up to us.

Perhaps we will attain this only temporarily because the first time it happens, it really is difficult to hold on to this sensation constantly. But at least we will receive the first impression of spirituality, will “taste” it, and then we will already know what to aspire to.

I very much hope that we will attain this and that the taste of spirituality will remain with us forever.
From the 1st lesson of the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

Related Material:
When Purpose Calls
Standing At The Beginning Of Glorious Deeds
Ascending To New Heights