In the name of the Supreme Power, Allah
The first session of the 85th round of Congress 60’s educational workshops—dedicated to both travelers and companions—began at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, with Mr. Hossein Dezhakam as the master of the ceremony, serving also as the guardian, and Companion Iran as the secretary.
The agenda of the session was: “The Third Valley and Its Impact on Me.”
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
With strength drawn from the Supreme Power, Allah, we begin this session.
Hello friends, I am Hossein, a traveler and the guardian of this session.
I kindly ask that we observe fourteen seconds of silence to seek refuge in the Almighty for our liberation from our most powerful enemy—our own ignorance and unawareness.
Thank you, friends.
I now request the secretary to read the summary of the previous session and announce today’s agenda.
Hello friends, I am Hossein, a traveler.
I hope you’re all doing well. Thanks be to God; I’m doing well too.
Today is the 31st of Ordibehesht—the very last day of the month—so it’s time to say farewell to Ordibehesht and step into Khordad. How quickly the days are passing!
It’s now 9 minutes past 10, and we are currently at the Academy building in Tehran.
Today’s agenda is the Third Valley:
“It has to be known that nobody thinks as much as human being for his Real self.”
This valley pours the truth plainly into our hands—it tells us that we must know, not “ought to,” not “should,” not “ideally,” not “if possible.” It uses the word must, firmly and unquestionably.
We must understand that no being—none whatsoever—whether human, plant, or animal, not even if we were to count God as a “being” in this context, none think about themselves as much as a human being does.
No one thinks more about a person than the person himself.
With the beginning of life in this valley, a fresh start awaits us—a beginning that can lead us to health, peace, calm, and comfort. We hope that by observing nature, you too will reach vast understandings and shine like the sounds of music in your own universe, discovering the key to your true path for yourself.
We clearly understand that if a human being does not search on their own—even if they sit among the most skilled explorers—they will never reach the true essence of the matter.
From the above, it is understood—and we have come to the same conclusion—that in solving our own problems, the greatest responsibility lies with ourselves.
If we assume that others must come and solve our issues or problems for us, we are gravely mistaken. We must realize that when it comes to resolving difficulties, the heaviest burden rests on our own shoulders, and we must be the ones to think the most and make the greatest effort to overcome them.
Here, the responsibility is placed entirely on the individual. It’s not like saying, “Neighbors, help me so I can be a good spouse.” No—it doesn’t work that way. Every person must carry out their own duties and responsibilities. This is something we must understand.
Sometimes we expect help to come out of nowhere—some kind of divine intervention. But that’s not how it works. Help doesn’t come from the unseen unless you start moving. If you take action, yes, then support may come—even from the unseen. But if you don’t move, no help will come to you.
If you truly understand this point, then you can succeed in life. And this is something we’ve deeply understood in Congress 60: no one helps Congress 60 more than its own members. Once we grasped this truth, we stood on our own two feet. That’s why, whether financially or scientifically or in many other areas—thank God, a thousand times—we are not struggling with major problems.
If we had chosen to rely on others to solve our problems—expecting the Headquarters to support us financially, or the Welfare Organization, or the government, or donors and philanthropists to step in—we’d be walking around with a begging bowl, asking what to do and where to turn.
Even now, in the United States, their research centers had grown accustomed to receiving funding from the federal budget, and now they’re facing a crisis. The federal government cut off the funds—Trump came and slashed the budgets. For example, Harvard used to receive something like two billion, maybe two-point-three or four billion dollars annually from the federal government. It was tax-exempt, and some of the students paid $100,000 to $150,000 per semester. But now that support has been cut off. All their research projects are hanging in the air, left in limbo. And the same thing is happening with the rest of their research work.
Now, whether those research centers actually conducted research or not, whether their projects reached any conclusions or not—when it comes to addiction treatment, they’ve spent hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of dollars, and yet nothing has come out of it. But let’s set that part aside—for one simple reason: they never stood on their own two feet.
That’s exactly what we all have to do. In life, we must try to stand on our own two feet—even when it comes to science. In the realm of knowledge, in developing specialists, the real specialists are our own members. Our own members are the ones who learn, who become guides, who take exams, who elevate their knowledge and build their experience. That’s the point it’s trying to make: pay attention! Don’t sit around waiting for this person or that person to come help you. Many of us, at times, even act like we’re owed something—why isn’t someone helping? Why isn’t this being done or that being done?
Well, there was a time when I was going through an extremely severe financial crisis. I expected all my relatives—our sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, extended family—to give me whatever savings they had so I could solve my problems. But I never got anywhere with that mindset.
This is a very important point for all of us to understand. The same principle applies to treatment and to our work as well.
Right now, from our own perspective, we’ve taken the right steps. We must maintain a savings fund—we must have financial reserves. To put it in today’s terms, we need to have a kind of foreign currency reserve. Why? For our future generations. To secure the foundation of our work.
I was talking to Amin and I told him: money is truly sacred—when it’s earned and used in the right and proper way. If you want to eat bread, you have to pay for it. Money is not filthy; people might say “money is dirty,” but that’s not true. Money is not corrupt, and it doesn’t bring corruption. It’s people who might be corrupt.
Money that comes from the straight path—from honest work—is extremely valuable, extremely sacred. I’m not talking about money that comes from gambling or those kinds of paths; that’s a different story. But money that’s earned through proper and ethical means is highly respected.
If we don’t have money, we can’t help anyone. If we don’t have money, we can’t even sit on these chairs. Each chair you’re sitting on costs two or three hundred thousand tomans. And how many of these break each month? What about the places we operate in? All these lights are on, the air conditioners are running, tea is being brewed over there—these all cost money. But because we rely on ourselves—because we counted on ourselves—we’ve fully achieved results.
It’s the same in all the branches. And what’s really interesting is that Congress 60 is structured in a way that each branch takes care of itself—and it should be that way. For instance, if a city wants to open a branch, we ask them: “How much money do you have? How much have you saved up?” Based on the amount they’ve got, we help them—whether it’s to buy land, purchase a building, rent a place, or put down a deposit.
So, you see, all the cities and regions take responsibility for themselves, and they’ve really learned this well. They find the land on their own, build the place themselves, do all the work themselves. They become guides themselves, they become the camp-guards themselves, and they’re the ones who form and shape the entire system.
This is incredibly important for us—and it’s something we must learn to apply in every area of our lives. Whatever we learn in Congress 60, we should be able to use in real life. Here, we learn. Out there, we apply it.
And what’s really interesting—and this was mentioned by one of the dear companions in the last session—is that Congress 60 first empties you out in terms of information. Everywhere else, they just keep filling your head constantly—“This is what Rumi says, this is how Saadi expresses it, here’s what Hafez says, Shakespeare says this…” and so on.
But Congress 60 first clears out all the wrong information inside you. It empties out those mistaken ideas. For example, the idea that everyone should come and help you—that’s a wrong way of thinking. You must stand on your own feet. You have to help yourself, provide your own resources, but instead, many keep looking to others for help.
Right now, all the NGOs in the country are facing financial problems—even the large scientific associations—they can’t even cover their daily expenses.
For example, even a scientific association can’t cover its rent because it hasn’t learned to stand on its own feet. Of course, to stand on your own feet, you need to have something valuable—a product that’s worthy of trade. If you don’t have a valuable product, you’ll never succeed.
In Congress 60, we have a very valuable product, and we are delivering it and seeing results. Take weight loss, for example—how easily and smoothly it happens now. I have to pay attention to how many people are overweight—most have twenty, thirty, or even forty kilos extra. Women, especially, are more receptive to this; either because they generally have more weight to lose or they respond better. When I look at the list of those who have recovered, I see many had serious illnesses that have now disappeared.
Everyone says, “You gain weight because your thyroid is underactive.” But the truth is the opposite: “Because you gained weight, your thyroid became underactive.” Many believe the thyroid problem causes obesity, but that’s not how it works at all.
Since I don’t have official proof, I can only say this from experience: all the members who lost weight had overactive thyroids, and as their thyroids balanced out, they lost fifteen or twenty kilos—and their thyroid function improved as well. What could be easier than that?
Now, something has also started happening in the legions: some people come in with, say, forty kilos overweight and lose fifteen or twenty. Then the wives say, “Enough, don’t lose any more,” and the husbands say the same thing to their wives: “Stop losing weight, that’s enough.” But that’s not right. You know yourself that having up to seven or eight kilos of extra weight isn’t a problem.
For example, if you started with forty kilos extra and have lost thirty, forty, or fifty kilos, and now you have seven kilos left to lose, that’s fine. Even if you have five or six kilos left, that’s okay—I’ll guarantee you recovery with that. But don’t just give up there.
If you want to join the legion but then quit halfway through, don’t bother coming at all. Think carefully before you start, because later I will recommend that such people not be given any service roles. This isn’t a game—you can’t lose five kilos and then say, “No, I don’t want to lose any more.” You must reach your ideal weight. Having seven or eight kilos extra isn’t a problem, but you must complete this process.
The guide puts effort into helping you, you lose a little weight, then you quit—don’t do things halfway and disturb others. So if you want to do this, don’t be a disturbance in the legion. If you think your spouse doesn’t like it, then just stay as you are, chubby and comfortable, and don’t try to lose weight at all. But if you do want to join the legion, you must be serious and make sure to reach the standard stage.
That’s enough from me for now. I’ll open the floor for others to share their thoughts.
I also want to congratulate all of you on Watchman Week. It has truly been a busy week for the Watchmen, as they had to travel to many different cities and regions. Some, like Ani and Amin, got a bit sick from all the traveling back and forth to Shiraz. Amin’s vehicle even broke down and is currently resting. Some visits were canceled and delayed because of this. Ani also had challenges—her child got sick, then her husband fell ill, so they had to cancel a few appointments as well.
It’s okay, though; those canceled visits will be rescheduled in the coming weeks when they have time. They will definitely visit those branches and hold the ceremonies then.
How wonderful it is that the Watchmen come to all the cities and visit the branches. They see the cities, they see the branches. For example, for the female travelers, all the male Watchmen were invited to every Congress 60 branch. Today in Kerman, Mr. Salami is there; in Mashhad, it was Babak; here, Mr. Khodami; in Rez, Mr. Torabkhani; in Karaj, Alireza Zarkesh; in Qazvin, Mohammad Sadegh. They all went to truly see how things are, what’s working, what’s not, and to become familiar.
This is very important because the decisions that will be made in the future will definitely be discussed by the group of Watchmen, and those decisions will be made collectively by the whole organization.
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say for now, and I’ll let you share your thoughts and contributions. Thank you for listening to me.
Regarding the ceremonies for the liberated members (the “Rahaei” ceremonies), as we said, they are held on Fridays until 11 a.m., Mondays also until 11, and Wednesdays the same, before the session starts—before 10 a.m. We’ve now arranged things so the members don’t have to wait too long, especially for receiving badges and covenants. All the pledges and such are given together early in the morning, so everyone doesn’t have to wait too much.
Anyway, thank you again for listening to my words.
Transcribed by: Fatemeh K
Translated by: Companion Marjan
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5/23/2025
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