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 »