Question: When I am involved in spiritual work, why don’t I see what others see? Where is that point that I limit to myself?
Answer: That point is your desire. It is only yours, no one else’s. Around it we build feelings and perceptions: the mind and senses. Emotions are in the heart, the mind is in the head. And therefore each one sees the world differently.
Each one has his own collection of desires, even though in every person there are a total of 613, these desires are different in size for each one, and therefore in each one they constitute his own set.
Question: Are the desires for food, sex, and family the evil inclination?
Answer: None of these desires has any connection to the evil inclination. The evil inclination is something directed against “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), against connection and unity of people. There is no other evil in the world.
It doesn’t matter if I want to eat two lunches or have a big house; well, so what? But if at the same time I direct myself against connection [1] with others, then these desires become harmful. Suppose that I want to build a villa for myself at someone else’s expense, then specifically “at the expense of others” I distance myself from the upper world.
To understand this, it is necessary to feel the system of management, and then it will be understood where you are behaving correctly and where not. It is specifically the yearning for higher attainment that necessarily brings a person to recognize and attain [2] the entire network of forces.
[170322]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/11/15
Related Material:
Material Desires As An Aid To Develop A Soul [3]
Stay Focused [4]
A Mosaic Of Desires [5]