Preparing Ourselves for Unity Day

Tens Community Lesson in Preparation for Unity Day Convention Tomorrow

Tonight’s tens community lesson was not simply another evening of study. It was our preparation for tomorrow’s Unity Day convention.

Before entering a large gathering, we need to know what we're gathering for. The first workshop therefore asked a simple question: What is the purpose of our society? We reminded ourselves that again and again we have to awaken within us the purpose of the group, because the ego constantly pulls us back toward our own private concerns.

The second workshop took this one step deeper: How do the friends help me reach the “private domain,” the place of bestowal, rather than remain in the “public domain” of self-love? We cannot make this transition alone. The friends create an atmosphere that allows us to think differently, to feel differently and gradually to value connection and giving above our natural desire to receive for ourselves.

Then came the question that is especially important before a convention:

What is the benefit of gathering together? What can we achieve in a large gathering that we cannot achieve on an ordinary day?

The answer is that a convention gives us the opportunity to absorb something from everyone. We come not only with what we have, but with a desire to receive from the entire community - the inspiration, the importance of the goal, the confidence in the path, the strength and awakening of all the tens. Each person takes what they receive from the whole and brings it back to their own ten.

In this way, every ten becomes stronger, and the tens begin connecting with one another. It is like living cells that first develop individually and then connect until they form one complete body. This is how we build our common spiritual structure - piece by piece, ten by ten, connection by connection.

But there is another essential element to this preparation: choice.

Within our relationship with the group, we are given a genuine area of freedom. We are given the point in the heart, the advice of the Kabbalists and the opportunity to decide whether we will make the effort to build the right environment around ourselves. The natural ego does not make this easy. In fact, it constantly tells us to remain concerned with ourselves.

True freedom begins precisely where we rise above that automatic impulse.

So the preparation for tomorrow is not simply logistical. It is an inner preparation. We need to arrive with an appreciation for the quality of bestowal and connection as the highest value. We need to come wanting to receive from one another the strength to rise above our common ego and to build something greater between us.

The convention is a gathering, but its real purpose is to gather our desires.

Each ten brings its own spark. Each friend brings their own effort. Each group brings what it has accumulated. And tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to place all of these together—to raise connection above the ego and create an atmosphere where the importance of our common goal becomes stronger than our individual concerns.

This is the preparation we made tonight. Tomorrow, we don't simply come to a convention. We come to connect everything we've built into one common desire.