Question: How should we come to the ONE Convention and be in this whole atmosphere of togetherness when we come from a world of individualism?

Dr. Michael Laitman: Individualism and separation and these definitions… we see these things today as nothing but trouble. Precisely, out of this world’s troubles, we should explain that we are approaching an opposite, connected world. The more we resist connection, the more troubles we will suffer. We have to start explaining it. Each day, the idea of connection becomes more acceptable in the eyes of the world because the blows are becoming systematic.

Question: How we come and unite at the ONE Convention, and be together when in the outside world there is separation? The world is suffering and is separated and we at the convention are having such a great time, being united and all.

Dr. Laitman: Judging by the despair and problems that exist in the world, I don’t see the world as enjoying, compared to what it had 20, 30 or 50 years ago. Back then, the world and people thought they were progressing toward something good, and look at how quickly these things have been inverted. We just need to explain that we have no choice. We are living in a special process, which exists in Nature, and it is inescapable. If you do not do this or that act, you will suffer more and more.

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Question: How rare is it that one achieves spirituality?

Dr. Michael Laitman: In our world today, it is not rare. It is available for anyone. There were times, up until our time, when one out of a thousand who wanted it could attain it. Today, anyone not only can, but must, attain it. Look at the pressures and at what is now surfacing in order to push people to connect and discover the upper world, so that people will shift to a higher level and live in an altogether different place than where they currently are.

The general crisis is pushing from behind, and the light that reforms and the group, i.e. the big group that is already emerging worldwide, and is ready to absorb into itself and progress. Everything is there.

What we are now discovering is the wisdom of connection, the method of correction—the general method of correction and how everyday this explanation becomes more approachable, easier, reasonable in the eyes of the general public. Look at the kind of help we are getting from above both in terms of understanding the method and in relation to the world—how the world is becoming immersed in this whirlpool.

This Q&A is based on the Special Q&A Session with Dr. Michael Laitman in Preparation for the ONE Convention, which took place on Sunday, June 16. Watch the whole video & stay up-to-date with ONE Convention preparation materials here »

Question: Does the building of a Kli [vessel] and the intention/prayer/screen to reflect the Light take place only in the group, or can it be done individually?

Dr. Michael Laitman: Individually? No. The Creator doesn’t listen when you are alone. There is a concept called “the prayer of many”; we talked about it many times. The whole thing about the broken Kli [vessel] is about you trying to connect, trying to become one again. That is why the Torah—the wisdom of Kabbalah—was given. Call it integral education, the wisdom of connection, whatever the title. That is the whole work here in this world, which is the lowest and worst of all the worlds, i.e. that we will begin to connect and accordingly ascend—ascend not in elevation toward stars or in terms of altitude—but in understanding, awareness and sensation. We will then discover new dimensions.

Even if I connect with one person, I already discover the Upper World. I shift from the dimensions of this world into the spiritual dimension. I feel myself in a world beyond time, place, life or death, rising to the level of forces. My body exists as an animal. When it dies, it dies. As Rabash says, “It’s like putting your dirty shirt in the laundry.” That is how you feel, that you got rid of the body, but you remain, because you’ve acquired a new desire. In your connection with others you’ve acquired a common desire, and that is all. This is you now. Your heart is there in spirituality, and here in this world is just an outer coating, and thus you do not feel any loss when it dies.

This Q&A is based on the Special Q&A Session with Dr. Michael Laitman in Preparation for the ONE Convention, which took place on Sunday, June 16. Watch the whole video & stay up-to-date with ONE Convention preparation materials here »

Question: How do I ask the Creator to connect with my friend in a way that He will allow us to unite?

Dr. Michael Laitman: Friends, I’ll let you in on a big secret. You don’t need to tell anything to the Creator. The Creator is the innermost point in our own hearts. What you feel in your heart is what you’re telling the Creator. It doesn’t work in the way that we are connected to each other, that I feel something in my heart, and I speak about something else. There are no games here. There are no politics. Here, what you feel in the heart is what you’re saying to the Creator.You don’t need to open your mouth to speak, to aim toward Him, now I’m in intention toward Him, now I’m not.

Whatever is happening in your heart at any given moment—what I want, what I’m drawn to, what I aim for—is all my speaking to the Creator. He is inside our hearts as the Inner Light inside the desire. He created the desire and sustains it. Therefore, if I want to tell him something, I have to change my desire. I don’t need to think about the Creator in terms of what I’m now going to tell Him. Does it mean I pray to Him if I take a prayer book and read it? In my heart I might be feeling the opposite of what is written in the book.

Thus, it is our desires that we need to change; the desire is called “the heart.” Our work is far more internal. So if you ask me, “how can I change the desire?” I don’t own my heart, I don’t command it. How do I know what it wants and what it doesn’t? Even if I do, how do I convince myself?

How do I change the desire? True, we can’t do this alone. For that there is the light that reforms. When I understand that my desire needs to be toward bestowal and love and it’s the opposite, then I need to ask. How do I ask if I don’t want it, i.e. on one hand in my heart I feel I want to be happy, and on the other hand, intellectually I understand that I need to think about everybody’s happiness and be connected to everyone.

I cannot have two desires, and that is why I have a mind and a heart. Through the mind I can change my heart’s desires. How? If I activate myself, if I act with the group, with the friends, and together with them I get an impression, an inspiration toward unity, I then activate this impression toward the light that reforms and it changes my desire. Through the work in the group, whatever the case may be, you need to know that what happens in your hearts is what you are saying to the Creator. This is your prayer.

This Q&A is based on the Special Q&A Session with Dr. Michael Laitman in Preparation for the ONE Convention, which took place on Sunday, June 16. Watch the whole video & stay up-to-date with ONE Convention preparation materials here »

Question: I really want to change my will to receive, invert it into bestowal. Is it possible to do it at the ONE Convention? Is it possible to do it so quickly?

Dr. Michael Laitman: It is written “You can buy your world in one hour.” Who wouldn’t want that? I’ll tell you, if I start calculating the number of states I’ve been through, why didn’t they go a 1,000 times faster? It’s also possible, but everyone has his own pace, his own plan, and it is our own free choice to accelerate time. So if a person prepares himself well for the convention, if you go there and you really want to discover the Creator, then it is possible only by preparing a place for revelation. The place for revelation is connection with others, because the Creator is revealed between us, and in the connections between us. In an attitude of mutual bestowal, if we prepare a place for Him in this way, He will appear for sure. What is good about the convention is that we make an effort at a special time that is limited in time, energy and willpower. If each of us shows the other how much he wants the revelation of the Creator and the power of bestowal to appear between us according to equivalence of form, then it is possible. It is written about that, “You can buy your world in an hour.”

Student: I have to add something from my own impression. I really identify with people that are coming to the convention for the first time. It is an extremely special event and I think that I can speak on behalf of all the students. When they come to the ONE Convention for the very first time and they’re really prepared to immerse in the atmosphere and to dissolve in it, it is an extremely special experience. All that we learn on our lessons, all we study, we suddenly start feeling it. It’s really special. It’s very hard to convey in words. You have to really feel it.

Question: To continue what you just said about the inner preparation, a student from the Education Center says: Rav, what’s the most important intention we must hold onto during the ONE Convention, and what is the intention during the preparation, when we are there with the friends?

Dr. Laitman: We always study about the right intentions. I have to come to a state where I rise above my will to receive and feel the friends who are outside of me. Actually, the right depiction of it is the workshop [see drawing above] where we are all connected around a certain center of the workshop. And each of us turns toward the center where we want to connect. All our desires are left outside, this ego. That’s how we are drawn; these dots are the points in the heart. So within that summarizing desire, that conclusive desire, we discover the place for the revelation of the Creator. That’s all. That’s what we have to achieve.

This Q&A is based on the Special Q&A Session with Dr. Michael Laitman in Preparation for the ONE Convention, which took place on Sunday, June 16. Watch the whole video & stay up-to-date with ONE Convention preparation materials here »