Entries in the 'Perception' Category

Returning To The Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator is one, unique, and unified force. As it says: “There is none else besides Him,” “I have not changed my HaVaYaH,” or “the Light is at absolute rest.” It is all about one essence.

All of our reality can exist only if we separate from the One and exist outside Him. But actually there is nothing but that One. The question always comes up: “If there is none else besides Him, then who are we?” But actually we don’t exist. All of our reality is in our imagination until we return to the One: one desire and one Light, as it says, “He and His name are one.”

Then everything but that One disappears. The whole process we seem to go through outside that One exists only in our corrupt imagination, detached from the true reality, in concealment, in a distorted perception. This is what we have to correct: From our delusive vision in which there are two, we should switch to the truth in which there is only One.

This One is the only thing that exists and rules. We must understand that the world we see in which there are many different creatures is like a dream, an optical illusion. It is as if we cannot focus our vision and find the right thought or feeling. We as if are lost in the fog, confused, and hence feel the world this way.

So how can we return to the truth spoken about in the wisdom of Kabbalah, called “the wisdom of truth,” meaning the method that leads us to the truth? How can we return to the true, full, and correct awareness? What is the reason that there are so many of us and that we are all in this false, confused state and then return to the truth—to the One?

Kabbalists write that in order to reach that One, we have to go from imperfection to perfection. Due to this, the One is revealed and a different unity appears.

Now it is impossible to recognize the final goal and how high it is. But we try to somehow imagine the difference between everyone’s private desire and thought and the desire and the thought that connect and adhere to the concept of “One.”

The unity we reach thanks to our connection is not a simple combination of the forces of many people that come together. It is a force that grows not just in quantity and not even just in quality. The law of equivalence of form is in effect here. If we connect because we want to reach bestowal, to rise above our present nature, then according to the law of equivalence of form, we reach the concept of “One” that resembles the Creator.

If we simply connect, we become an ordinary group, like a group of football fans or soldiers in the army, which receives the general sum of forces of all its members. But here it isn’t just about the sum of individual forces. After all, everyone doesn’t come here with his force, ego, mind, and desire in order to connect all the attributes, desires,  forces, and brains together.

Rather, everyone rises above his mind and feeling, and so they connect their desires in order to be above reason, above themselves. Then they are incorporated in the concept  of “One” called “the Creator” and acquire one mind and one feeling. This one mind and desire begins to rule over them.

Therefore, all the sages and Kabbalists have one desire and one thought, although it seems that they express different opinions and even argue (like the House of Hillel and the House of Shamai). But they debate only to better clarify the concept of “One,” to see how every individual feels it from his point of view, after he rises above it and discovers this One.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/2012, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Becoming A Deserving Part Of Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Everything in reality, good and bad, and even the most harmful in the world, has a right to exist and should not be eradicated from the world and destroyed. We must only mend and reform it because any observation of the work of Creation is enough to teach us about the greatness and perfection of its Operator and Creator.

Gradually, along the states of its development, humanity begins to understand this. Before we wanted to correct the world and we thought that we understood something in it and that we could make it better. Now, we are not so sure of ourselves any more, and we are even beginning to realize that it is impossible to play with nature.

It needs to be understood that nature is perfect. This system has descended from above, and if we want to feel good in it, then we have to imagine ourselves being inside nature, and not higher than it. We are only a small, integral part of it, sensitive and weak, thanks to our extra-sensitivity. That is why it is worthwhile to study nature to discover how to reach balance with it in the most correct way.

The most important thing is to understand that we are located in a perfect, eternal, and corrected world! But if we see it as something else, then this is only because we are looking through uncorrected qualities, as it is said: “Everyone judges by his own flaws.”

Only this correct view of the world can build corrected relationships in us towards the environment and ourselves and will allow us to live well and confidently, with hope for a good future.

We had to arrive at this conclusion through the price of suffering for thousands of years, and getting blow after blow until we finally grew smarter and saw that it is so.

Today, it is finally becoming clear to man, what the Kabbalists were writing about three to four thousand years ago.
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From the  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, “The Peace”

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An Assortment Of Spiritual Professions

Dr. Michael LaitmanEveryone’s personal perception of reality develops according to the root of their soul, its character and mentality.

There are people, who are more inclined towards a technical development, while others have a more sensual inclination, as in our world there are humanitarians and technicians in our world. Some study music, literature, philosophy, and others study engineering, mathematics, architecture and so on.

And spiritually, there is a huge difference between them. Why did one Kabbalist write in one style, while another in another? This is a result of the character traits of a person’s soul; each one perceives the spiritual world differently. Subsequently, they complement each other, but as a whole, there is a big difference between souls, much greater than the differences between people in our world.

Of course, everyone perceives the spiritual reality; as we move forward and pass the Machsom (barrier to spirituality), everyone reaches the insight. But to one person, the spiritual world may be revealed in a way that he sees a whole picture and works with the figurative attainment, while another one, with a more technical disposition of the soul, has a perception like that of a physicist in our world. The third one perceives spirituality like a psychologist does in our world, and the fourth one as a simple workman.

In the spiritual worlds, there is a much richer “assortment” of  occupations than in our world, like a projection of one world into another.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/12, The Zohar

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Where Is The Creator?

Dr. Michael LaitmanI have often given the example of the mathematic structure (according to Landau) of two digits: 1 and 0, (the Creator and the created being, the Light and the vessel). But how do the two connect?

The point is that our world is integral and infinite and if we try to imagine it in numbers, we will cut off the connection with Ein Sof (Infinity). There is a gap, Ein Sof, between every two consecutive numbers. In every event (we observe), which is real and concrete, there are its past, its future and all the other possible events (states), which exist simultaneously.

Can we attain what is missing between the numbers, the events, the attainable and the unattainable, the existent and the non-existent, the something and the nothing?

There is a void between two fixed torques, but it is in this gap that the changes take place when the old picture of the world disappears and a new picture appears “as if from nowhere,” but with slight modifications.

The source of this is the raising of MAN (prayer) from the previous state, through all the worlds, to Malchut of Ein Sof, that includes all the analogous states which later descend, down the ladder of His Providence, taking on the form of the concrete, numerical, quantal future states.

Hence, through the world of Ein Sof, the past and the future are locked, and this is a step (a change of step is the Reshimo—reminiscences, and a quant is the minimal change) in the development and the movement of the world towards its goal. Thus, there are constant gradual changes in the world, and every change is discrete and fragmented. But eventually they all fill themselves until the perfect state, because every discrete change is recorded in the world of Ein Sof.

Anyone who can (by using the method of Kabbalah) connect to the source in the world of Ein Sof, finds the answers to all the questions in the Upper (above consciousness), and feels the new existence internally.
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Gradually Approaching An Instantaneous Revelation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible that one minute I don’t understand anything and then suddenly everything is revealed to me, or is it a gradual process?

Answer: It’s a gradual process which leads to an instantaneous revelation. We see this happening to us. We try doing this and that and nothing comes of it, but then suddenly we acquire an understanding and reveal something. We don’t understand how it happens. It’s as though there is something inside of us that slowly grows, then just bursts, and we suddenly gain understanding, sensation and attainment both in the mind and in the heart. This process requires great concentration over a long period of time and many continuous stages that ultimately lead to a sudden breakthrough.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Spiritual World, As Is, Without Any Miracles

Dr. Michael LaitmanEvery person at some stage of their life begins to feel that he has to reveal its meaning. This can be a conscious search for the meaning of life, which is given to individual, chosen people, or an unconscious urge, as it is characteristic of the rest of the people. However, everyone will at some point have to find the answer to this question: What am I living for? Since the goal of development is to return all of us to our root.

When a person asks, “What is this life for?” in essence, he is asking, “What do I need this suffering for?” The suffering is personal or common, but everyone asks because his desires are not receiving fulfillment. Then a person begins to search, and some people come to study Kabbalah, while some people arrive at some other places.

Our development on the human level began hundreds of thousands years ago, from the beginning when humanity emerged, having risen above the animal level. It started from the development of the mind and language, but in fact, man was moved by that same question: “What am I living for?” Although, a person, who lived thousands of years ago, did not understand the essence of this question, just like today, when this question is being awakened in us, we do not exactly understand its true meaning. It is simply an unclear urge, which makes us move forward.

This is how the whole of humanity moves forward chasing wealth, fame, power, and knowledge without knowing that the goal of development is not in this, but in reaching one’s root, to find out: where I come from and what rules me, and really means, where should I go?

The desire to enjoy, awakening in us, asks us these questions, which are gradually becoming ever more precisely directed at the root from which the upper Light is shining through at us. This is how our system is set up.

But a person, who has already reached the last stage of development, and who has been brought to such a place where he begins to study, at first does not understand the connection between his need to find out what he lives for, what the meaning of his life is and what he studies. Often, he is not even aware of the question itself, which takes the form of various other questions, simple curiosity.

This is how he begins to study the science of Kabbalah, or at first he takes interest in some other methodologies, spending long years on this. Sometimes, under the pretense of Kabbalah, he is being sold various “miracles” and advices about how to succeed in life, and how to find out about your past, present and the future. However, if he really arrives at the science of Kabbalah, and not fortune tellers, then he discovers the Kabbalistic books for himself and he does not understand where all of this is located: the upper worlds and Partzufim.

He has no connection at all with these concepts. He does not know where all of that exists, beyond the borders of our world, our Galaxy, or even the whole universe? Is it somewhere up there, below, or maybe inside the material? It is very difficult for a person to understand how to relate to all of this.

A lot of time is spent on this. And even when a person listens, he does not hear that the science of Kabbalah only talks about the connection between people. He does not understand that by setting the correct connection, we reveal reality, which belongs to a new, higher dimension.

It is difficult for him, given his previous opinions and impressions about the science of Kabbalah, to connect it to human relationships. How can such a hidden and high science, such high names and worlds, actions and forces, have any connection to our relationships towards each other, between me and the neighbors, between me and my friends?

He simply cannot imagine that all of the upper worlds and what goes on inside of them is in essence the “psychological” connection between us, people. And if we begin to interact with each other, with bestowal and love, this means that we are using the spiritual force. In the event that we reach true love of our neighbor, and not that egoistic one, we’re used to in this world, which is calling the use of the other for the sake of my own pleasure love.

However, if I use myself for the sake of other people’s benefit, this is called love of one’s neighbor. When I relate this way to someone else, then in my relationship to him I begin to reveal the spiritual Partzufim, the upper worlds, Sefirot, angels, demons, spirits, and all of these spiritual forces, which are “for” or “against” my connection with others. They can be positive forces or negative ones, meaning the forces of “holiness” or “evil”.

All together, they unite into one common force, which I reveal in my love for the other, called the Creator, which have a number of various names that reflect the character of my connection with others.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/12, Writings of Rabash

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Single Concealment Before The Meeting With Pharaoh

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe difference between double concealment and single concealment is very great. It is a phase that takes a long time, even years. In the past, it took Kabbalists an even longer time.

The difference here is that in double concealment the person doesn’t know definitely, nor even approximately, what bestowal is, but only talks about it when he repeats what is written about it in the books. Thus, it is very difficult for him since all of these words are artificial.

We see this in his conversation, but he must do it like a child who, in the meantime, imitates the grown-ups and plays with dolls and cars. This is so, until he attains the state where the upper Light bestows on him, and it becomes enough to begin to feel the value of bestowal.

He begins to describe to himself, in his imagination, what bestowal is, how he exits himself toward others and loses himself there, how he begins to feel them and not himself. This is not even “we,” meaning, I am in connection with others. Instead, he ceases feeling himself and feels only what is external to him. It is not possible to convey this feeling with words, but it begins to be grasped within a person.

This is called reaching single concealment. Then, he begins to demand the disclosure of bestowal. It is now understood to him that it arrives only with the help of the reforming Light. In the transition from double concealment to single concealment, he sees that everything is realized only through the upper force and that only he, himself, can awaken this force through all kinds of actions, but not more than that.

Here, the demand matures in him that he must have the upper force that will produce within him the quality of bestowal. We are in this state now, before the congress in the desert, before the meeting with the Pharaoh and the exit from Egypt.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Questions On Perception Of Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How important is it to grasp that the whole of reality is inside of us only? Should we strive to connect the desires we know as external with those we attribute to ourselves?

Answer: To the extent that you work with yourself and the group, you will begin to feel that all of them and, in general, everything is within you.

Question: Can we say that the still parts in our physical world are a seemingly external picture of Behina Aleph (the first phase) of the four phases of the Direct Light?

Answer: Yes.

Question: If there is ego in the receiving part, there must also be ego in the creating part. There must be a Force above Heaven and Earth, although not “above” as we understand it.

Answer: It is our ego in its corrected form that creates bestowal.
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The Outline Of The Opposite World Is On The Horizon

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you combine “faith above reason” and the principle that “you may only judge what your eyes see”?

Answer: You must only base your critical assessment on your real sensations, as it is written: “A judge has only what his eyes can see” and not on what I think is written, what I was taught, or what someone said. What matters is what a person feels in his desires and what he understands with his mind.

This is our foundation: I don’t have more than what I am feeling now. And now I need to see how I can rise above it. This is because all spiritual growth is based on rising to a new degree every single time. But how can I rise to a new degree? In corporeal life we ascend the degrees through our egoistic desires and deeper, comprehending thoughts, in other words through the growth of the heart and the mind. But when it comes to spiritual ascent what matters is not the quantitative growth, but elevated qualities.

This is why I don’t work on growing my mind and feelings. I don’t strive to feel and understand more in my studies and regular life. It’s not that I limit myself; this simply is not the direction I see for myself. After all I want to acquire a new quality which is not inside the old heart and mind.

I need a different heart and mind! It is like two different pictures. The heart and mind which operate in the new picture of the world care for their neighbor even though I don’t yet know what this is. But back at the old picture it’s the other way around, I only care for myself.

And both of these pictures have an absolutely equal right to exist. But I need to reveal this second picture, the second reality. And it’s impossible to imagine it until it becomes revealed. We are only preparing ourselves for it. Light comes to us from that new picture according to the efforts we make to attain it from our previous position. This Light gradually forms the ability in us to begin to distinguish this picture from afar and gradually imagine what it’s like. But that which happens there we call the “higher knowledge,” beyond our mind, as it is written: “I have seen an opposite world.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/12, Shamati #16

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The New Life Of The Internet

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you see the future development of technology, the future of the Internet, which is a means of connecting people, if Kabbalah continues to expand further?

Answer: First of all, I think that we will experience an inner revolution in mankind rather than in technology. Nowadays, humanity is undergoing an internal crisis and total re-evaluation of values; consequently, the future generation will not be carried away by social networks and all the other toys clogging the Internet. Man, willingly and naturally, will distance himself from it, and according to a newly emerging desire, humanity will become occupied with more exalted and meaningful things, leaving the empty chatter behind.

After all, we are advancing and the Internet will gradually get filled with things closer to spirituality. Science, technology, and everything that man is surrounded by at home and at work will be aimed only at helping us evolve spiritually. The spiritual world has come very close to man! We feel that it affects us, that it is here, nearby, around us, and that it is in the same network of the Internet, and we just need to see it.

We are permeated by a field of spiritual waves, which determines our true existence, and the world that we currently see around us is merely a projection onto an imaginary screen. Thanks to modern technology, humanity will make a transition from today’s illusory perception of reality to spirituality. It is a type of a bridge; so, naturally, I am for the development of the Internet. You are to see how we will fill it with new content: We just need time.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/10, “The Peace”

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