Our perception of the whole reality is very shaky since we don’t know how to relate to ourselves or the world in which we exist. Where do we exist and what do we feel now? Is it a dream or the truth? Is this world an objective reality or merely our temporary perception in distorted organs of perception? Possibly, when we correct our qualities from reception to bestowal, we will perceive a completely different world.

And this does not mean simply understanding it or feeling it better with the same senses that are more developed. Instead, I can completely change my sensations and perceptions that are attuned to reception and stop accepting reality egoistically; I can begin to perceive it in bestowal, an aspiration to my neighbor.

It turns out that instead of my own desire, I acquire the desires of others, and I begin to truly feel through them. And then I will sense a completely different world, another reality!

Who depicts this reality to us? Kabbalists say that it is the upper force, one, unique, and unified, besides which there is nothing else, which is good and does good to all, the wicked and the righteous alike. It is the upper Light that exists at absolute rest, and we can reveal it only by becoming equal to it in our qualities.

There are 125 degrees which correspond to the Light, and I will feel the upper Light in me to the extent that I receive the quality of bestowal, depending on the extent that I can correct myself and make myself similar to the upper Light which bestows kindness and all that is good. If I acquire the same qualities, I simply will exist in this quality of bestowal, thereby feeling it.

In other words, there is a force of bestowal called the “upper Light,” and a force of reception called “the creature.” If the creature acquires the force of bestowal over the force of reception, this force that begins to govern over it is perceived as fulfillment: a screen and the Reflected Light, the degree of bestowal that gives the creature a sensation of fulfillment.

How do we relate to this upper force? Will we ever be able to feel it, or do we just imagine it somehow according to the qualities in which we perceive it and the sensations, thoughts, and desires that are awakened in us? Kabbalists say that the upper force itself is Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator, which is not felt or attained by us. He has no form that we can perceive. However, to the extent that you try to draw closer to Him and become like Him, you will be able to understand various qualities that pertain to bestowal.

He is like a “giver” to you, but He himself has neither the quality of bestowal nor reception; He is above all this. Only His attitude towards the created beings is called “bestowal,” “love,” “giving.”

However, if it is written that He is “good and does good,” “there is none else besides Him,” “I did not change my name (HaVaYaH),” “the law is given and cannot be contravened,” which means that He is invariable, good, and perfect, then how can we ask Him for something? How can we ask Him to change and have pity on us?

This pertains only to the creature’s attitude which perceives the Creator in this manner and tells us about it, as it is written: “The Torah spoke in the language of the people.” Therefore, all our prayers and our attitude towards the Creator are essentially our attitude to ourselves, the way that I judge myself and desire to change in the direction of bestowal. However, all changes occur only in the created beings who, due to their own changes, feel that the picture of the Creator changes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/2011, Shamati No.1

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