Entries in the 'Perception' Category

Don’t Miss Out!

Dr. Michael LaitmanTo approach the Creator is good, and to distance oneself from the Creator is evil. So, we have to tune in and perceive everything only in this way. Through this system of coordinates (good, evil) approaching or distancing ourselves relative to the Creator, we should perceive life. And you will see how fast you come to a completely different frame of feelings, quite a different assessment of values, as if from one language to another.

Therefore, no matter what happens, you must evaluate everything in terms of closer to or farther from the Creator. After your evaluation, you control yourself; getting closer to the Creator, you feel good, distancing you feel as evil, or not quite yet.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Workshop 7

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It All Starts With Gratitude

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is known from the science of Kabbalah that we are in a constant state. Only our sensitivity, our perception of this state, changes.

How can we improve this sensitivity? If I were to add the sensitivity of my friends to the sensitivity that I received today—that is, to the point in the heart, if I connect my heart with their hearts—this will be enough for me to begin to feel the true state I am in.

How do we connect our hearts? Our attempts unfortunately lead nowhere. We address this request to the Creator, to the Light. I try repeatedly, but little works.

Why? It is because our attitude toward this is egoistic. We want to receive all the time, to increase our sensitivity of this world we are in, but we can see from it only a small, faint fragment. We want to expand our egoistic properties and absorb the upper world.

We should come out with a different attitude. This is correct attitude to the connection between us, to the feeling of the upper world, based on the property of gratitude.

Gratitude! Any human action, no matter what, should start with it. It is said that, even if a sharp sword were to be raised over your head, you still have to give thanks and firmly hope that this is only for the better, and thus the Light works on you so that precisely such critical conditions put you in the right attitude toward the upper governance.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Workshop 7

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In The Mirror Of My Own Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The friends in the group told me what I need my ego for. What do I need the ego that I feel on the outside on the street for?

Answer: This is all part of your soul! Malchut, the soul, or humanity call it what you will, all are actually you. So, who are all the rest? They are all parts of you, only about you.

This means that it is a multi-layer structure of seven billion where all the individual souls connect, and instead of one plane, the outcome is a sphere. So, you absolutely need everything. Therefore, a cynical, disrespectful attitude toward anyone in this world seriously hinders your spiritual advancement.

In fact, you must reach a state where you perceive all the people in the world, the totally negative ones and the totally positive ones, as close to you, as inseparable parts of yourself. They are actually nobody. With regard to you, they are puppets, and they operate only in order to provide the right background for you to get closer to the Creator.

Question: I can’t stand my ego. I have no choice; it is an inherent part of me, but I can escape anothers’ ego or drive them away.

Answer: Where do you see someone else’s ego? If you feel it within your ego, what do you actually feel? It is your own ego. It seems that the world is divided into a multitude of people, but, even now, you are speaking with yourself.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 2

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A Spiritual Feeling

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we cease operating through the mind and learn how to feel others?

Answer: We feel our world first and then think about it. We analyze and come to some conclusions because feelings come first, and then the mind analyzes these feelings, creates a picture from them, evaluates them, lays them out, and differentiates between them. So, first of all, we should feel. But we can’t think about what we don’t feel; we can’t realize this in any way or take it into account, etc.

First of all, we need a spiritual, higher feeling, meaning the property of bestowal, in which we see the next dimension. Together with our present dimension, it will complete the picture of the world. This is what we want: What we have today will be revealed to us in the left line, and that which is in the force of bestowal, we’ll try to reveal in our overall integrated system (the right line), and all this has to live within us. And by averaging, constantly connecting them, we’ll move further towards the goal until these two lines, both forces connect.
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

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The Picture Of Creation Hanging On Two Hooks

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn order to grasp the right picture of reality, we have to be familiar with the two points of view that there are, one which is the Creator’s perspective and one which is the created being’s, and to understand the relationship between them. Based on these two states we can determine our attitude towards the desire, so that eventually all these points will determine the relationship between the Creator and the created being according to their oppositeness and similarity to one another and will provide us with a new perception of reality.

It will no longer be the same false picture we see now that is called “the imaginary world,” which is one-sided and limited to only what goes through us, through the egoistic filter, thus providing us with the feeling of this world. With the wide and infinite reality outside us, beyond the limits of our perception, when it goes through our ego and reaches our feelings, it’s restricted to the size of a corporal picture of this world that we eventually feel. But in order to reach an unlimited perception, we need the new points of view.

Our limited and egoistic reality is called “animal” since it is perceived by our animal body. In order to feel the true reality, we need the two points of view: one point that is opposite from the Creator and another point that is similar to the Creator. Between these two points, from the different types of connections between them such as for and against, similar and the opposite, we build the new picture of our world. All the opposite attributes and all the similar ones will be the components of our perception.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Roadmap To The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I relate to the Creator if He is the property of bestowal?

Answer: Really, what is “the property” anyway? Is it a physical force? Can I really love or hate gravity? For example, I can like it on the condition that it does something good to me. But that doesn’t mean that I love or hate it. I realize that it’s something inanimate and therefore I relate to it according to my feeling, according to the benefits I get from it.

I enjoy the sun. But, do I really “love” it? How can we love the sun compared to loving a plant, an animal or a person?

So, how do I relate to the Creator? First of all, it is said about Him: “I HaVaYaH change not.” The upper Light is in absolute rest; it is “Good that does good to both the good and the bad”; the Creator treats us with absolute love.

On the other hand, the Creator is called the Great, the Terrible, and so on and so forth. All evil comes from Him; all the good originates from Him. Everything is so contradictory that I get confused.

If something is unchanging, it’s bad. Why do they tell us that the Creator doesn’t change?

Baal HaSulam explains in his letter number two, that if a father relates to his son with absolute love, it makes the son hate him instead of love. After all, if there is no reaction whatsoever on the father’s behalf, the son sees that it doesn’t matter how he treats his father; in any case, his father responds to him with absolute love. It prevents the son from developing love, and it does not allow him to change, see the connection and stay in contact. It’s as if he is facing an inanimate object. Plants have a certain level of reaction, animals respond even more strongly, not to mention the human being. Then, positive and negative reactions penetrate in each other and create a new liaison, a mutual inclusion.

But if the Creator doesn’t change, and at the same time He is so kind and loving, then what can I feel for Him? There is no way I can take Him into consideration. And yet, if I cannot consider Him, then I leave Him out of the picture, as if He doesn’t exist at all. Why would I consider someone who never changes?

It’s a very deep notion that was explored not only by Kabbalists. However, Kabbalists strove to demonstrate that at all times the Creator is “Come and See”; so I reveal Him. I cannot reveal Him Himself, His essence, but only His form that is dressed into matter. That’s why when we attain Him in His full entirety, we reveal His ultimate and perfect shape and really see Him as the Absolute, the Perfect, the Eternal, the Good that does good.

In all other states, we regard evil or good that come from Him depending on the level of our own corruptness, as it is said: “Everybody judges according to his own flaws,” and then, we have the opportunity to relate to Him to the degree of our own deficiencies and corrections, and thus see Him as good or bad.

And yet, we have to believe what the great Kabbalists who revealed Him in His true form, say, that He is absolutely good and bestowing.

So we have to relate it to our desires (Kelim): At this moment, we see the Creator to the extent of the correctness or corruptness of our desires, but when we attain Him at the end of the ladder we will reveal Him as the Good that does good.

Then all contradictions will be gone; we will get a “roadmap of advancement” which is scaled to our attitude to the Creator. It allows us to see how we change and accordingly how the Creator changes in our eyes.

We express gratitude to the Creator for giving us the ladder of concealment; with its help we can attain connection with Him. Otherwise, we won’t be able to connect with perfection.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “The Book of Zohar”

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A New Nature Beyond The Boundaries Of Corporeal Logic

Dr. Michael LaitmanLight is an impression within the desire, a special phenomenon within the vessel, and so I feel and identify it. It says that every Light that ever appeared on a certain level remains there. This means that all the states that were within the matter of creation, which we call “Light” or the opposite “darkness,” all the individual impressions, always remain within the desire and exist in it simultaneously, without interrupting each other.

It’s like the air that is filled with millions of radio waves that don’t interrupt one another since they are on different frequencies. They don’t collide with each other. The same thing happens in the vessel that includes even more components. Everything that ever took place in it remains within the vessel and the vessels are incorporated in each other from the first to the last.

This means that in every vessel there are all the other vessels and also all their states. But the point here is not the quantity. The quality is not a result of the quantity, but it comes above it when I rise above this immense quantity of impressions to the one operator who summons them. Thus, I draw the Light that turns all this quantity into one.

No additional quantity will generate a new quality. You can even count to Ein Sof (Infinity). There is no limit to the rational numbers. There are physical numbers that are expressed by irrational numbers and so can’t be expressed accurately, since they include an infinite number of digits after the decimal point, like the number pi, for example. It’s these fixed and irrational numbers that show us the elements of nature. But by attaining the limits of the numerical approach, a person demands the new qualitative approach.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Studying Myself In The Mirror Of The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn our world we are in contact with physical bodies, and it seems to us that we have free choice, independence, and that we ask and receive answers and responses. But afterward, we discover that we simply were standing in front of a mirror and there were no others. My attributes seems to be as humanity, as a great world around me with which I, as if, work.

Therefore, we need to understand that what we do to others, we do to ourselves. It doesn’t just come back to you in roundabout way, but you directly act against yourself. Everything that you see around you are your own internal qualities extended outward.

And this is the only opportunity to gradually discover yourself. Since if we would discover within us that same desire that the Creator created us with, we would constantly be stuck within it, then we wouldn’t try to examine it, but we would grasp it as a good thing, and we would only think of how to fill it. We would care about it like a loving mother who is not worried about anything, only that her child will be fat and healthy. She doesn’t criticize his personal attributes.

Thus we are in this special reality. It is said, “A person is a small world,” and everything that is inside, he sees outside. All the world that surrounds you is you, yourself, inversely as if it spilled out. And now, since you view everything existing as if outside yourself and relate to it egoistically, you can try with all of your egoistic attributes to attain love.

The result is that everything was created only for the purpose of its correction. If all of these attributes would stay within you, you wouldn’t be able to discover them and correct them. And thus you wouldn’t receive the Kli (vessel) for the disclosure of the Creator. But because all of this appears to be outside of you, you are able to see it and clarify the relation to it, to discover it 613 times greater, and in this way to discover the Creator. Thus, within you, only the “point in the heart” can be discovered.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, Writings of Rabash

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Leaping Over The False Clothing

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt’s a very simple principle, but it’s very hard to keep it since it constantly disappears. It is said: “There is none else besides Him,” and “His honor fills the land,” but at the same time everyone is asking: “Where is the Creator? Where can we see, feel, and discover Him?”

His revelation is the real goal of our life, although we don’t understand or feel it. It seems as if there are different goals along the way, but it isn’t true. Behind everything that we want, (food, sex, family, money, respect, control, knowledge, spiritual attainment, and eventually everything a person is attracted to) there is a concealed desire for the Light, for the Creator, which includes and brings a person all the fillings.

So even the smallest desire that is evoked in a person, is eventually for the Creator, but it’s concealed from us. I don’t perceive or feel that for which I really yearn. I want to rest, I want to enjoy life with friends and family, but behind all this there is always the Creator.

We are chasing different images and their clothing, but our true yearning is actually only for Him. What should we do so that we won’t be fooled by all these false garments and so that we won’t spend our life searching in empty corners, smashing our heads against the wall, and wasting our time? After all this can take forever and lead to nothing.

The process we go through teaches us that we will never be able to be filled egoistically! All the enticing clothings are false and fake. How can I discover that behind all clothing, even when I want to enjoy the children and the family, tasty food or rest, I am enjoying the Creator? The difference will be felt immediately.

If by receiving pleasure from an ordinary filling I am aware that I am actually enjoying the Creator, my enjoyment will be whole. It’s possible, but we have to enjoy in the same way He does, to neutralize the external clothing and to enjoy in order to bestow upon Him, to repay Him by this pleasure, so that we will enjoy each other mutually. Then the clothing will disappear and instead you will see the pleasure itself in its revealed form that will be revealed in your clothing.

So we have to constantly evoke the truth in the group by reminding each other that we are yearning for the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the attribute of bestowal, and this is what we actually enjoy and not its clothing. The main thing is the Creator’s honor, which means His greatness, the greatness of the attribute of bestowal that constantly takes care of us.

The Creator has created different false goals and clothing that will constantly draw us until we reach Him. These false clothing attract us to the way of suffering. If these clothing help us receive the clothing of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim, we advance by the way of the Torah, the way of the Light.

We always work vis-à-vis the Creator and we should try to change the clothing: to take upon ourselves the Creator’s clothing in which He conceals Himself and to hide our desire to receive under this clothing. Then we will adhere to the Creator, which means that we will leap over the false clothing. I annul the clothing He conceals Himself with, and it’s as if I get closer to Him rather than to this clothing by dressing my desire to receive with this clothing. Then my intention, my soul, is adhered to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12, Writings of Rabash

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A Veil Over The Face Of Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 42: We have now explained the five worlds that include the entire spiritual reality that extends from Ein Sof to this world. However, they are included in one the other, and in each of the worlds there are the five worlds.

Why are the worlds necessary? Isn’t the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) enough? After all, it descends from its whole spiritual level that is totally in order to bestow to a gradually lower level of bestowal called the worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya.

On the whole, it is about the same unity, the same mutual bestowal, but on a lower level. There are the same features and they connect in the same way, but the intensity of their connection decreases and is conveyed more weakly through the general network. Thus, the “worlds” are the concealments of Ein Sof that cover the intensity of its unity and connection.

In any case, we are speaking only about one reality. Later, when the souls are created, when a person wants to attain the attribute of bestowal, he will see and feel this system according to his current state.

And besides the five Sefirot KHBTM in each world, there are the four spiritual categories: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

There are nothing more than Lights and vessels. As the vessels mutually connect with the Lights, they feel them differently. In the language of the branches, we attribute these manners to the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, and give them different names. Now, they are all depicted to us as this world.

On the other hand, there are no identical “images” in the spiritual world where we feel the levels of our mutual connection. All the Kabbalistic concepts belong to the spiritual force that operates inside us, and so we have no illusions in the form of “three-dimensional pictures” that take up space, have weight, and so forth.

In spirituality, everything is clarified inside us in the true form, which means in the form of forces. However, in order to be able to speak about these forces and about the states of the desire, we give them names and definitions taken from the wisdom of Kabbalah and from compatible reflections in our world.

One way or the other, it is the same Ein Sof that is distorted to the extent that the created being looking at it is corrupt, as it is written, “a person who disqualifies, disqualifies according to his own faults.” The created being’s perception is depicted as 125 degrees, although, in fact, there is nothing but Ein Sof. When we speak about the worlds, about what goes on in them, we always refer to the person who is on that level. When he rises to another level, he will see a different picture.

So, we see that everything is relative. There is a system we are in and which we attain. The worlds do not actually exist, and their order depends on the person who attains it.

You constantly determine your state in relation to the world of Ein Sof. By perceiving twenty percent of it, for example, you determine your perceptions the world of Assiya. If you perceive forty percent of Ein Sof, you are in the world of Yetzira.

The worlds are divided also into degrees, but on the whole, you determine your current state with regard to the world of Ein Sof. Only it exists, and you aim your perception toward it and find yourself in one world or another on a certain level of concealment of Ein Sof.

Now, your desires are totally corrupt and opposite to it, so it is depicted to you in the form of this world. Actually, now, too, you are in Ein Sof, but unconsciously, and in this unconsciousness, the corporeal pictures are depicted to you. This is why our world is called “the imaginary world.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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