Over thousands of years, thousands of people have been trying to get out of this prison, the feeling of a narrow, small world, but they have not succeeded in doing this. And that will never change! The desire to receive will never willingly expand out of its own desire and release me, so I cannot look at reality through it and see the real world.

This will never happen! On the contrary, from day to day I will discover that my desire to receive has grown, but the opportunities for discovering new phenomena in it have contracted. And this brings me to the feeling of exile that forces me to seek and find the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah explains that a person cannot see anything more within his egoistic desire.

I must reconcile myself to the fact that the ego will not allow me to feel anything besides this world. And if I want something beyond this, then I must change my attitude regarding my desire to receive. I now perceive reality selectively, only seeing whatever interests my ego. But if I want to see a wider, truer picture, or at least a picture closer to the truth, then it is up to me to rise above the desire to receive, to go beyond my egoistic desire.

For example, I can exit my desire to receive and pass into the desire of a friend, or several friends. Through this, I have already expanded my perception and will feel the world that exists outside of me. I must connect with the desire of a friend. If I am able to feel reality in his way, then it will already be completely different in comparison to what I feel within my ego. That is how I will wake up from this dream and rise above myself. At least I will be able to get out of my box, out of my prison.

The general rule,  “Love your friend as yourself” is derived from this. This is the practical means that allows a person to get out of his tiny cocoon, which appears to us as this world through one’s prism of self- interest, to rise above oneself, and find a different view.

However, so that my mind will be truly independent of my desire to receive, I should not only go out to a friend or several friends, but rather it is up to me to connect myself to a multitude of other individual desires to receive. Only through them, each time from another perspective, will I see the true reality.

In the end, all the points of view, the individual perspectives will connect into one collective view, into one expansive observation. This observation will expand indefinitely until I will be completely free from my desire to receive, and through the desires of others I will acquire freedom. My perception of reality will not be not be subject to any conditions and will be absolutely objective.

A wonderful thing is that the true perception is still felt within my desire to receive, but I will have created glasses which correct all of the defects, neutralizes them, and makes it possible for me to see and to feel the higher reality.

So we say that the spiritual work is reflected in the need to “love your neighbor,” “rising to the height of the Creator,” and so forth. For “The Torah is spoken in the human language” (Mishna); that is what we are prepared to understand and feel. Yet in fact, this is talking about a change in the perception of reality.

But we need to carry out simple activities and exercises in order to attain this change in perception: either through our primitive, egoistic desire or through a desire to receive which is directed towards bestowal. In the end, I reach a state where my efforts to change my perception transform into pleasure because I feel that I am already close to freedom.
[119016]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/13

Related Material:
Living In A Stuffy Room Swarming With Mice
Seeing The World As It Is
In The Prison Of One’s Own Egoism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Perception, Spiritual Work | Add Comment →