Entries in the 'Perception' Category

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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A Deceptive Reality In Waves Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach of us contains 613 different desires, relating to our connection with one another, which we have to correct. First of all, I have to see that they are all egoistic and that I want to use the neighbor and the Creator.

This direction, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator,” meaning from love for the creatures to love for the Creator, first works in the opposite form: for the sake of using the Creator and the creatures for one’s own benefit. First we have to discern precisely this fact, and it becomes revealed on the condition that both the creatures and the Creator are used correctly.

At the first stage, wishing to achieve the general connection with the entire universe, through the creatures to the Creator, we discover our transgressions and mistakes, and that is how we reveal the evil inclination. This does not happen all at once. As one advances, a small part of egoism is continually revealed. We demand its correction, and in the Light of correction we reveal a greater part of egoism, and then again ask for it to be corrected.

Light comes from the Creator through the group, illuminating and correcting the evil that we discover, and as a result we discover new, stronger, harsher waves of egoism within us. That is how we advance from small mistakes to more serious ones, and then from small transgressions to bigger ones, gradually revealing and correcting ourselves.

But we always aspire to love, unification, the unity of Israel, Torah, and the Creator into one whole. We wish for the Creator to become holy, “separate,” special, meaning for the quality of bestowal to always be the greatest value for us. That is how progress occurs.

And the most important aspect of this work is to understand that all corrections are concentrated outside of a person. His spiritual advancement occurs outside of him. And outside of him there is only the Shechina and the Creator that fills it.

A person imagines that there is an entire world around him: still, vegetative, animate, and human, but all of that is just his illusion, his imagination. In reality, none of this exists. When a person begins to reveal the true reality, he discovers that all of it is devoid of the spirit of life, and it is enlivened only by the upper force of the Creator, who is standing behind all of these images and shadows. By themselves they are just garments, wrappers, not having inner fulfillment.

Let us hope that we will reveal this truth quickly and will begin truly working with the Creator through these garments.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, Writings of Rabash

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Did You Order A Movie Of Your Life?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Yesterday in the workshop I felt inspired by the hopes of all the friends about the coming convention that will take place in a few days in the northern part of Israel. In the next few days, we will try to keep the motto “knocking with repentance!” Today, however, I feel that I am in a completely opposite state, and that I don’t have the demand I had yesterday. I feel as if the carpet has been pulled from under my feet.

Answer: I think that such changes shouldn’t occur from one day to the next but from one moment to the next. A moment ago I was so adhered to the goal, and I yearned for it with such intensity and energy and a moment later it is totally the opposite, as if it had never happened.

What is going on? What is this wonder? To what extent do our desires change? There is no problem here; this is the creation. We are like a TV screen on which we are shown what we see and we don’t see what we are not shown. I am not the one who projects the film, and whatever is projected is not up to me.

The question is how can I become the one who projects the film if I want to see and not the one I am being shown? I don’t want to be in the life I am being shown in this movie. I want another movie!

Question: But can I project this movie, how can I prepare myself correctly from this moment onwards?

Answer: The problem is that I can change my feeling towards the movie that I am being shown only if I reach its real form. I am constantly being sent new Reshimot (reminiscences), signals, new pictures, which constantly come to me from Ein Sof (Infinity). It is a very long way, and in the meantime, I respond to them like an animal yearning for good feelings and escaping the bad ones.

If I don’t want to advance like an animal, like the pictures and the feelings that come to me in which I am in this three-dimensional space that determines my life, if I want to advance quickly and smoothly, I have to identify with the One who projects the movie to me. I have to connect to Him, to His plan, to agree with the process, to agree with what He sends me, and to understand that what he sends me and what I see are two opposites.

There is, for example, a picture that you can see in black and white or in white and black, negative and positive. Here too, I have to change my perception, but for us it isn’t just black and white, but forms that are opposite in many different properties of perception. I have to want to perceive the picture in the way the One who sends it sees it. The picture comes to the three-dimensional screen I am in, and I can’t feel it the way He depicts it, the way He sends it to me. He sends me a picture that is filled with goodness and delight, since He is good and benevolent, while I see it as the absolute opposite in my perception, my desires, and my thoughts.

In order to see it in its real form, I have to change my perception, my attributes, and my desires to the opposite. This is possible. I have another connection with Him besides this picture, and through the picture, I can connect with Him.

If I take this picture, as a whole, the whole world, everything that is before me, and want to connect it all and to attribute it to the One who projects this movie, I connect with Him and can demand that He changes my attributes.

Thus, with the help of the world, by arranging it correctly according to this method, I connect with the Creator, and He performs this change in me. Then I see that the picture changes, and I understand what I have to do. The main thing is to accept this change for the first time. From now on you already know how to proceed, you have a way; you have the right approach. Let’s hope that we will be able to fulfill this first action.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/12, The Zohar

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Looking For A Real Taste Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the evidence that we are making a real effort in work?

Answer: A person makes a true effort when he works together with others as much as possible in order to understand with his heart. All the understanding comes to the heart when the Light of Hochma, called understanding, is revealed in the heart, in Bina, the vessel of bestowal, as it is written: “It is the heart that understands.”

A person, in the beginning of his spiritual work with the purpose of correcting himself and becoming a detector of the revelation of the Creator, the Light of Hochma, needs to attain an inner conviction that all these notions: the Light of Hochma and its vessel, the Light of Hassadim, reception and bestowal, must manifest in him, in his desire, his sensations.

He needs to try to free the space from different opinions, feelings, and impressions that are now perceived closest to his body in order to fill this space with spiritual impressions. He needs to strive to feel the real taste of all these notions: Hochma, Hassadim, reception, bestowal, connection, closeness, and distance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/12, Shamati #145

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The Science Of Birth Into The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Letter No. 13: …This came upon you due to your negligence of my request to exert in love of friends, for I have explained to you in every possible manner that this remedy is sufficient to compensate for your every deficiency. And if you cannot rise to heaven, I have given you ways on Earth, and why have you not added in this work at all?”

We are the ones who draw the picture of this world in our properties. Actually, we distinguish two types of impact that our desire to receive feels:

  • good and comfortable
  • bad and dangerous

The “matter” we consist of is the desire to receive that is divided into five (5) levels: zero to four. On all these levels, we have multiple qualities that in general can be reduced to how to receive pleasure.

Our perception of reality allows us to differentiate the edges of the Light of Infinity that can either bring us pleasure or harm. All we do is we portray them in our perception; the entire picture of our reality is woven of them.

This picture is very small and limited; Kabbalists have been telling us about this fact for thousands of years now. Lately, also scholars ascertained that we catch only a fraction of reality.

Is there a way to observe authentic reality other than the one we are born into, live and die in, in which we feel insignificant, unhappy, and incomplete?

Kabbalists say that it’s possible to perceive the true reality and sense the Light of Infinity in which we constantly dwell only on one condition: if we manage to amplify our tools of perception.

This is why the science we study is called “the wisdom of receiving.” With the help of this methodology, we manage to broaden our sensors and in addition to the five senses—sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch— we climb a step higher towards obtaining five additional senses.

To do this, we have to change our desire to receive in terms of not only perceiving what’s important to us in a positive or negative sense, but rather to perceive things that are outside of our desire also regarding them in a positive or negative way. How do we do that?

I need to dress into somebody else, into someone who is external to me, to rise above my own sensations, both positive and negative, to the perception of what is good or bad for another. If I manage to catch somebody else’s sensations, at least the perception of one person, then I get out of myself and start identifying the world as it really is, in a initial, small extent. Then, a person can continue working on expanding my exits outside of myself, again and again, until I start sensing the reality completely independent of myself. This is called the perception beyond reason, above the desire to receive.”

We have been in the process of developing this quality for quite a long time now. The matter of which the desire is built has transitioned from the inanimate level to the vegetative, then to animate, and it has been the development of the receiving desires of self-perception. The desire to receive continued to enlarge its ability to feel various outside impacts from within until it depleted this option to the very end. There is no room for further growth in this direction any longer; so, the desire to receive now recognizes its limitations.

Here is what today’s generation is going through: We lack interest in life, indifference to further growth and what we do in this world. We can’t control ourselves and the world around us as before. Our egoistic desire has exhausted itself; we have completed this phase of evolution.

In the future, our desire to receive will push us towards the next developmental stage. It is said that by creating affliction and predicaments, the Pharaoh forced the sons of Israel to exit from Egypt. Similarly to them, we too feel hopeless in this life. The egoism that is governing us, demonstrates that it is unable to fulfill us any longer. We go the extra mile to find reasons to live, search for additional pleasures and livelihood; however, all of them lead to even deeper descents; the more we try to live better, the worse our lives become.

Even those who have everything do not sense any joy or happiness. Besides, our material life constantly gets harder. We definitely continue to fall.

This is exactly what is supposed to be happening. At some point, the sons of Israel fled Egypt because they went through a similar situation. They would have liked to stay there, but they were hit by huge blows and sufferings that didn’t leave them any choice but to escape.

When a Kabbalist begins his self-correction, he acts as if he strives to enter a beautiful spiritual world full of light, into the bright future that will open all horizons to him. However, on his way there, he discovers quite an opposite picture —tough internal life and intense burdens that press him immensely. This pressure is caused by the fact that he isn’t moving forward in the usual egoistic way. Instead, through desperation and unfortunate circumstances, he must pass through all stages of spiritual birth, meaning to exit Egypt, rise above his egoism, get out of himself, and feel what it is like to be out of his body; that is, he lives through sensing other’s desires.

In this world, the process of birth is also accompanied by labor pains (Tzirim in Hebrew), in other words by (Tzarot) troubles, sufferings, and pressure. And in particular, those feelings are given to those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah to help them advance by pushing them forward in the same way a mother’s uterus presses on the fetus for it to be born.

However, the wisdom of Kabbalah is not just telling us about the birth of a new perception and the acquisition of the transition from absorbing to releasing, from reception to bestowal. It is not a theoretical study of the process; it is not about philosophy. Kabbalah helps us to realize this by a process of spiritual birth.

After all, like a fetus in the mother’s womb, we have to feel cramped, dark, tightness, suffocation, and the need assist this process on our own. It’s a very unpleasant sensation. That’s why we are granted the wisdom of Kabbalah to begin realizing and acknowledging the process in order to make it easy and fast.

Thanks to Kabbalah, we know what to expect; we realize that we have to exit out of our internal sensations into the external world in order to avoid viewing the reality only through the limitations of our five senses; we should see the world that is outside of us, outside the womb. We have to achieve this state somehow. How?

We need an “obstetrician” here; we have to be born not as a result of painful birth contractions that push us from behind, but rather due to the outside force that pulls us forward. In this case, the process of birth will be quite easy, with the “waters,” with the property of Mercy.

For that, we need external support that has to be provided by the group, which elicits the external force. It is said: “Man shall help his neighbor.” The group can pull us out of this dark world into the bright light; it will help us raise our perception of reality to the next level so that it’s not limited by five senses anymore; but on the contrary, we begin viewing everything around us in the Reflected Light without absorbing anything inside ourselves, but rather turning outside.

Hence, the terms “bestowal,” “love,” and “mercy,” all of them, in fact, are talking about the perception of reality in a different quality, in exchanging one’s desires with the desire of his friend. If one manages to transfer one’s primary concern from himself to his group of friends, it is as if one is drawn out of the womb, out of this world, and go beyond this material realm into the world of externality. In this case, our efforts trigger the upper force’s response, which helps us go through this and to be born.

This is the first step we have to go through; it is extremely difficult. Similarly in our world, in spite of all efforts to facilitate the process of birth, to make it easy and safe, it always appears to be a miracle similar to the “miracle of exiting Egypt.” At this stage of development lies something new and extraordinary, and even more so when it comes to spiritual birth.
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From the Miami Convention 6/23/12, Lesson 1

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Beyond Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything Kabbalists describe is inside us, in our roots. My desire to receive begins to discover new horizons, showing me the present, the future, and the past according to its level of development. The time axis doesn’t exist by itself, it is a component of our perception, part of the picture that is depicted within the desire. Therefore the chronological process that we study is actually a chain of states. Since we have no choice, we speak in terms of time, since it is an algorithm of the feeling of our world.

The past, the present, and the future are states in which I can move back and forth if necessary, if I manage the desire and the Masach (screen). Thus, there is no time and no distance. It is merely feelings within my desire: One type of attributes stands for the concept of time and the other for the concept of distance.

The way we feel time now is an illusion. I am actually in a certain desire on the level of “the inanimate of the inanimate,” and this desire depicts pictures of my existence in this world, pictures of life and death. Although the “pictures” change before my eyes, the desire itself doesn’t change. It is a replica of higher desires, and so it depicts phases within my feeling that are similar to the spiritual levels. I feel that I am alive, but in fact it is only a reflection of spiritual levels and the changes in the “matter” of the egoistic desire that is considered “dead.”

Of course, there is no intermediate state regarding the Creator. The upper Light is in a state of absolute rest, and it created only one state to begin with, which we have to perceive. I cannot perceive it today, because I am not prepared for it. Therefore it was restricted by 125 degrees and each time I discover the next higher level. This allows me to advance along the ascent to perfection.

But one way or the other, everything is inside me, in my desire to receive. Now I see time as an external factor: The earth turns around the sun, the minutes and the seconds go by…but in spirituality there is nothing external; there we approach the desire to receive and perform all the actions in it.

This chain of actions is what determines time. Even if it takes ten years to reach the next step, in the spiritual dimension only a second goes by. There the feeling of time is not external, but only depends on my actions. What is more, there are no gaps between the actions since each one summons the next. So when I rise to the spiritual dimension, my actions are performed sequentially and time disappears.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Difficulties In Perceiving Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Should we include the issue of the perception of reality in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: I wouldn’t teach this topic in the first course because it is a very complex issue. It should be taught very carefully, so that it wouldn’t seem like mysticism, new age or like all the other philosophies, or like some sublime ideas.

The material in teaching the perception of reality should be based on serious scientific research, that show that first and foremost, it is science, it is physics, and that it stems from studying this world and not from some ancient sources and made-up conclusions. This means that we are not talking about something that simply seems that way to us, but that is based on scientific data. Then we can already put together a certain picture of our world perception, of our feelings, our impressions, the processing of this internal information, how we communicate with the world, what the mechanism called “I am—a man” means, and what I do see.

I repeat, not every person can perceive this correctly. I fear that this issue may turn into an obstacle and that it may evoke rejection or may lead to numbness, as a result of which a person will detach himself and afterward will not perceive or understand you any more because you would not be speaking on the same level from which you spoke about the explanations of the problems in life that were presented coherently. In this case, it is impossible to bring the explanation down to the level of a person’s ordinary perception.

This issue should be part of the teachers’ training and then again not in the sense that they should teach this material, but only for their general development.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Everything Is Within The Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is one created being and it is the desire to receive. This desire to receive receives different impressions from the Light that created it as “something from nothing.” This means that different phenomena are imprinted in the desire, which divide it into five parts” the root, the first part, the second, the third, and the fourth. The desire feels only what happens within these parts and the relations between them, and nothing more than that.

All the changes can take place only within this desire to receive, according to the way it feels its parts: to what extent they are connected, how great or how wide they are, etc. Accordingly, the reality perceived by the desire is stabilized and is made of what goes on inside the desire.

The desire can exist but not even feel itself, as if only the subconscious is active in it. It could be that it already feels itself as feeling reality. It could be that it feels itself as feeling reality and others too.

In addition, the desire can feel itself and others and they also feel themselves and others. Thus, it attributes to them some self-feeling and perception. Small children and undeveloped people cannot speak about this.

But one way or the other, everything takes place inside the desire to receive, and this desire has several levels of feeling.

On the level of “this world,” it feels its own existence and also his closeness to others or his distance from them. The image is depicted in it by the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. If we cut off these five senses, the desire will not feel anything.

Here we should emphasize the sense of touch—it isn’t just about touching something, but about a physical feeling of the self that is made of certain parts that come in contact with the air, etc. So if we cut off these five senses, the created being disappears. From the side, it seems that the desire exists, but it doesn’t feel anything, which means it has no feeling, no attainment, and actually no existence.

So all our work is actually within the desire. We cannot attain anything more than its five parts, but we can improve them. The main thing is to understand—what we feel is our feeling ourselves and the phenomena that go through us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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