Don’t Paint Spirituality With Corporeal Pictures

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the process of development, having reached a comprehensive age, we have become equipped with a huge arsenal of images and concepts about the elements of this world. Hence, we are able to divide and connect various pictures and meanings in our imagination or in action. Therefore, when we hear about something, we can imagine it based on what we know about “something similar” even if we have never seen this object and have no relation to it.

As to spirituality, we have no idea about it, nor any contact with it; we have no knowledge of its elements that we could sort and divide or connect in order to imagine something “similar.” We read about spiritual phenomena, and, if we imagine something in pictures, we ought to realize that we are deceiving ourselves. In this case, we take images of the corporeal world that are familiar to us, and, from them, in our imaginations, we put together, as it were, pictures of the spiritual world.

Since this path is known to be false, we, while studying Kabbalah, try not to put anything together in our mind and feelings, but to act from what is described, as “the judge has only what his eyes see.” Adding things (intellectualizing and fantasizing) is not allowed since it signifies form that is not dressed in matter. Kabbalah is against it because we have to attain a form dressed in matter. If we start imagining forms that are not dressed in matter, they will always be false forms borrowed from our world, and we will never know the truth.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/10, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Until The Worm Grows Into A Human Being

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe system of the Upper Governance called “The Tree of the Universe” comes down to us from Above in its ideal form where all of its parts are properly interconnected. Each element is united with all others in absolute harmony, it receives nourishment from everybody and nourishes everybody according to its degree and the common strength of the system, which results in the formation of one common sphere symbolizing perfection.

Everything is permeated by the “illumination of Shechina”; the Light fills all the desires which exist in mutual harmony so they may supplement each other. The law of this system is for everyone to act only in its common interests, consciously and reciprocally. It is created from the side of the Light, bestowal, or the Creator.

We find ourselves in the very center of this system as a broken part, and we need to become aware that this system is broken and opposite to its true form. This is how we reveal our breaking.

Our form is opposite to that of the system. It turns out that I exist in a wonderful world of Light and spiritual harmony, but because I am in my own egoism, I am opposite to the system and see the world in a completely different way.

The Upper Light purposely conceals from us the perfect reality only because it would feel horrible to feel its perfection! Therefore, I see merely a small part of the true reality around me, the part that I am able to absorb with my minute egoism, but I see everything in the opposite form, as bad or evil. I perceive it to the extent and in the form that I am able to accept and live with it.

To the degree that I become corrected and acquire the desire for bestowal, this sphere is revealed to me more and more. It widens and shows me that I am worse and worse! But meanwhile, I am already receiving the force of bestowal and correcting myself and my reality. This continues until my perception broadens and encompasses the whole sphere, the whole “tree,” the entire system, and then I can tune into it correctly and with full force.

However, for the time being, we exist in the center of this whole universe, in a form opposite to it, locked inside our own tiny world like a worm in a bitter radish.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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