Question: What replaces sight for us during the first spiritual attainment?

Answer: The light of Hochma, which we comprehend.

Question: So this is a pure perception of light?

Answer: No, it is not pure because it is perceived in my senses. Just as I now perceive everything through physical vision, I perceive it through spiritual eyes.

Everything that I comprehend, I still perceive in my inner disturbance. I do not perceive pure light. I call light what is formed in my perception.

There is nothing in creation that can be perceived objectively. There is no such understanding! I perceive everything to the extent that my properties coincide with some object outside myself, with some force outside myself.

I do not know what a force, an object, or anything that exists outside of me is, and I never will! I cannot feel it. I can only perceive how I feel things outside of me.

Let us say, I have a blind dog with nothing but a sense of smell. Around it is a big world of images, different shapes, large cubes, statues, and people who move, talk, and do something. The dog does not hear, does not see; it just smells. That is its whole world.

It does not perceive forms, peoples’ expressions, or their external expressions. It perceives everything through smell.

Since we represent a whole system (each of us), then when I scold you, there is one smell; when I rejoice, I have a different smell, and so on. And dogs have a spectrum—millions of different smells. The dog catches this and builds its own picture of the world. So are we.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Limitations of Vision and Hearing” 11/29/11

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We think that connection in the ten is the same as simple friendship like with former classmates or other long–time friends with whom it is easy and pleasant for us to be together.

But the ten is not the same at all. By connecting with friends in the ten we build a spiritual Kli. Through this, we attract the Creator, the good who does good, into our connection, and it is He who corrects our state.

Therefore, connection in the ten is not just a friendly connection, but the attraction of a higher spiritual force into our connection, the only force that can correct everything.

And if we want to change the picture of the world that appears before us today with its wars and sufferings in practice and get closer to the Creator, then we need to get closer to our friends, as it is said: “From love to friends to love of the Creator.”

And then, within our connection, the Creator will be revealed, and we will feel how the state of the world changes.

All states that we see around us are actually our personal, internal states. We do not see what is truly happening in the world, but we see only what we are capable of seeing in it.

And if we want to see that not only the power of judgment rules in the world, but love and mercy, we can do this through the power of our unity and prayer to the Creator. The power of judgment will completely disappear only at the very last stage of final correction. The main thing is to rise now from the feeling of this world, the lowest reality, and feel that the Creator is doing everything for our benefit to raise us higher and higher.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is the Meaning of ‘Reply unto Your Heart’?“

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Question: All I see around me are reflections of some of my qualities. How do I recognize these images in myself through seeing something from the outside and receiving some information?

Answer: I am not interested in external images! These are all false; they are my contrived ideas and our temporary, illusory world. It is depicted by our qualities as if it exists outside of us, but it is inside of us: the galaxy, the universe, and so are all my inner qualities.

At the first spiritual degree, it takes such a low position that Kabbalah simply does not deal with it.

Let us say I have a dog. What difference does it make to me how the dog perceives its world? I am interested in feeling the world through higher qualities. Kabbalah uses low qualities only for analogy, to explain how to develop upper qualities in ourselves, and not to go deeper down.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Limitations of Vision and Hearing” 11/29/11

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You already know that there is no absence in the spiritual, and that transference from place to place does not mean becoming absent from the first place and arriving at the next place, as in corporeality. Rather, they remain in the first place even after they have moved and arrived at the next place, as though lighting one candle from another, without the first being deficient (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Science of Kabbalah”).

In spirituality, there is no moving from place to place. Everything that is in its place can also change and move to another without leaving the previous one.

Comment: Now even quantum physicists have discovered that electrons can be in different places at the same time.

My Response: This is not the same thing. In spirituality there is no transition from a past place to another or reproduction, as is possible in our world. It is just that the property of each spiritual object is such that it does not disappear from where it once was, but generates another state from itself.

Comment: For example, in one of the articles, Baal HaSulam gives an example of water that can freeze or evaporate, i.e., change its properties.

Answer: Yes, but these are aggregate states; however, the essence does not change.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 11/7/23

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Question: Baal HaSulam’s article “What Is ‘A Habit Becomes a Second Nature,’ in the Work?” says that because of this rule, we feel a taste of reality.

But when something becomes a habit, we just stop feeling the taste and are looking for something new. What does the taste of reality mean, and how do we even understand that this is reality and not our fantasies?

Answer: We have no way of understanding what is reality and what is not. We are not able to feel it. We perceive what the Creator gives us, so this is our reality.

Question: The article says that when two objects have the same feeling of reality, they are in adhesion. At the same time, it says here that the reality of the Creator is unattainable. How can we come to adhesion?

Answer: We do not know that. I act according to how I perceive others, including the Creator. That is all. We cannot check whether our feelings are true or not.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is, ‘A Habit Becomes a Second Nature,’ in the Work?”

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Comment: It is very difficult to understand how information can be conveyed, not through words, but on a sensory level.

Answer: Words are general codes and nothing more. You are sitting in one place and I am somewhere else, and we transmit information through words. If we were connected, not by wires, but directly through our minds and feelings, then absolutely nothing would be required.

There are no words inside our brain. There are some forces, synapse switching, and electrochemical processes. What do they have to do with words? They add up to some images.

Baal HaSulam writes a little about it. Basically it all boils down to a very simple interaction of vessel and light.

Comment: Well that would be a programming language, and yet it is still a language.

Answer: We have to somehow express the program, retain it in a way, and transmit it in some form. But in fact, every time there is an image and you want to work with it outside of yourself, you have to express it in some way, convey it so someone receives it and understands it, and so on. But if you are connected with others on the inner level, as if you are one whole, no language is needed. Language is only a transmission.

Question: It is said that Baal HaSulam was ready to talk even to stones. Why did he want to articulate these words through language?

Answer: This means he was ready to talk to any person willing to hear even a little about the purpose of creation.

Question: It was important for him to convey information to his students; whether they understood him or not, it was important for him to bring it into the world. Why did the information have to be given verbally?

Answer: How else can you bring it into the world if the world is not yet able to understand it? The Kabbalist does this through his students. This information will exist in them and will gradually leak through them into the world.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Transmission of Information Through Feelings” 10/31/11

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Question: Today, artificial intelligence is replacing vast areas of human activity, even creative ones.

According to forecasts, many professions will simply not be needed. A person will not be able to realize himself in anything. In that case, what will people do?

Answer: Self-education, they will think more deeply, desire more deeply, and tune themselves more deeply to attain the deeper layers of nature.

Question: Open AI CEO Sam Altman discussed their ChatGPT and GPT-4 in a podcast. In it he stated that he “believes AI can become conscious, but defining AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and consciousness is complex. He suggests a conscious AI should display understanding of self, have memory, and possess the capability of suffering. As we work towards AGI, it’s vital to consider these aspects of consciousness and ensure that AI systems align with human values and preferences” (Medium).

Do you think artificial intelligence has consciousness?

Answer: The fact is we must first determine what artificial intelligence is. Can intelligence be artificial? Can we somehow control it, or is it just some kind of mechanical toy for living bodies?

Question: Scientists in the field of artificial intelligence have coined a term to describe the rise of artificial intelligence: General Artificial Intelligence Takeoff. They say that at some point there will be a complete seizure of all human initiatives by artificial intelligence. It will replace absolutely everything and be in control of everything.

Do you have any fear of such a state?

Answer: Absolutely not. I do not believe it. Such a machine, such a robot can really do a lot, but it will never be able to rise above man. Of course, it can confuse us. We get confused even in the nonsense we invent and create today. But we have nothing to fear from the uprising of machines.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah in the modern turbulent world” 8/3/23

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Question: People cry in joy. People cry in grief. What is crying?

Answer: Crying is a small state when my desires, what are called Kelim (vessels), cannot accommodate the impression I get. It causes an eruption of excessive stress that I cannot handle inside in the form of tears.

Question: To understand what it is, one has to know Kabbalah. Do you hope people will reach a stage where they will listen to your explanations and clearly understand what it is about?

Answer: Of course! Undoubtedly! We will communicate with each other not verbally, but on an internal level, and we will fully feel each other, integrate into each other with our hearts, minds, feelings, and thoughts—absolutely everything!

It seems to us that our bodies limit us. In fact, we are tied up in one common web, in one common network, but we cannot reveal it in any way.

Now it is revealed to us as a crisis. “Crisis” in Greek means the birth of something new, not anything negative. This is the next degree of connection between us.

But we are not ready to be at this level of connection yet, so we do not know what to do. We want to stay on the prior egoistic level, the way it used to be. Nevertheless, we need to reach the next level of our unity, where we are connected not by words, but hearts and minds.

Then our bodies, our world will gradually disappear from our senses. Their importance will disappear, they will simply fade away, and we will remain plugged only into this single network between us.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Transmitting Information Through the Senses” 10/31/11

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Comment: You call our world low and disgusting. But, in principle, this world is actually spiritual.

My Response: If you use it correctly.

Question: In essence, is it our task to turn perceptions around, and this whole world will become harmonious, beautiful, and pleasant?

Answer: Certainly, just not our world, not this one that you see, but your inner world.

Question: In this case, will our world still remain so dirty, mired in corruption, and crooked, and will it never be corrected?

Answer: It all depends on the relationships between people. If we will correct our relationships, then everything will change. Through our relationships, such a light will begin to shine in this world that it will correct it entirely, everything we have created here is polluted. The light will correct everything to such an extent that the world will be clean, and transparent.

Question: But in essence, this level is also created by the Creator. Why is it considered dirty?

Answer: It is a reflection of our relationships, like a collective mirror that shows the distorted spiritual world. And if I change my attitude toward others, then everything in this mirror will change.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How To Change Our World?” 10/31/11

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Question: What is this embrace, closeness, and warmth that we feel in connection with the Creator?

Answer: It is impossible to explain it in other words because the connection with Him really feels like an embrace, intimacy. I feel the Creator very close, I snuggle up to Him, I want to be near Him all the time, I warm up. This is what the Creator gives me. I feel that I am in contact with Him all the time and get this closeness, this warmth from Him.

Question: What can I give the Creator in return?

Answer: Recognition. Cling to the Creator like a child, and it will be enough.

Question: How can one not be dependent on the desire to be in connection with the Creator for my own sake, but dependent on the desire to bring Him contentment?

Answer: To do this, you must constantly think about it and ask for you to have such a relation toward the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/23, “To Criticize Oneself”

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