Perceiving from the Outside In
Question: Do you remember the time when you understood nothing of what was being discussed in the science of Kabbalah? Perhaps you could roughly understand the structure of the worlds, but when you actually sensed them, how unusual was this impression or feeling?
Answer: It was very unusual, because you begin to perceive reality “from the outside in.” This is the most important epiphany at the beginning of the path. You understand what is written is not about the outside, but that our perception, our brains, our impression of reality are designed to see everything outside of ourselves and feel outside of ourselves.
You begin to realize that all this exists in you: the group is in you, the people are in you, all that is happening, all events are in you, and, naturally, this results in unity in the group, mutual guarantee, and all else.
Such a correct understanding of this process and what Kabbalah generally says about how a person combines all this within himself, is, of course, a huge revolution. This is an indescribable event. It turns everything upside down.
From that time on, a person begins to change, to treat himself, others, his studies, and his teacher differently.
Question: You said that a person begins to perceive reality “from the outside in.” Is this crossing the Machsom?
Answer: Not yet. He just treats himself and his surroundings differently, realizing that all this is inside him.
You can even say it more simply, without clever concepts. I realized that everything depends on me, on my correction, that I will achieve spirituality not somewhere far away but in me. It is in me that the quality of the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, will appear, that is, such a property when what is outside of me and inside of me merge into one whole, without boundaries.
From that moment on, I began to have a different attitude to the science of Kabbalah and how to realize it, not through logic outside of myself but precisely in me.
Question: Does it usually take time?
Answer: It takes a lot of time.
Question: And then there is a transition, a complete inversion, which you mentioned. What happens to a person if there is already an inversion?
Answer: No, in this case, the inversion is carried out simply in relation to the science of Kabbalah, how it should lead you forward: either it should reveal some area outside of you, some laws, connections, or reveal everything inside you. When you begin to realize that this must happen within you, you radically change your attitude toward everything.
Question: And yet, there is a completely different perception behind that “wall”?
Answer: Yes, but it is impossible to convey it.
Question: Not at all possible?
Answer: Not at all.
Question: So how did Baal HaSulam explain spirituality to his grandson, who immediately “ran off”?
Answer: He explained to him that it is impossible to make the transition to the spiritual world through human strength, only with the force of the upper light. And so, he “ran off.”
Question: Did he not show him that world?
Answer: No. You cannot do that. He just told him, purely logically, how much a person should change, and he decided that it was impossible to change.
[351936]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Before and After the Machsom” 10/8/10
Related Material:
In Neutral Gear
A Moment before Machsom
Breaking Through The Machsom




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