Entries in the 'Perception' Category

The Only Use Of This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe don’t even realize how deeply immersed we are in the egoistic nature. Our cells, our bodies, our world, our thoughts and desires, and generally everything that exists is just egoism and nothing more.

Everything aspires only to receive, to absorb as much goodness as possible for one’s individual self. This is the nature into which we are born and in which we live, not having the slightest inkling that there is a possibility for anything to exist besides this.

Nevertheless, we have to go from one world to another, or in other words, to acquire an additional, new world, to grow through from the point in the heart, to develop it into a new spiritual “body.” In essence, it is analogous to our current body, which only appears flat to us, but in reality it is depicted by forces and vectors. But instead of seeing this image on a computer display, we see it on the 3D screen of our consciousness.

We perceive reality on this screen of the receiving desire. Everything we are able to receive or perceive falls upon this screen and stops there, creating the picture that we see.

However, the forces of bestowal are entirely different. We cannot stop them with the screen of the receiving desire and therefore we do not perceive them. Only by creating a screen in the bestowing desire will we reveal the second half of reality. In truth, we won’t feel half, but nearly 100% of everything that exists. Whatever amount of Light this new screen, the intention of bestowal, will stop, that is the kind of picture we will see on it.

It is very difficult to start raising a second “body” from your point in the heart. To do that you have to enter a group, like a mother’s womb, and start growing inside it. This looks very repulsive and unreal to a person. The whole world is against it and therefore he does not think about it or attribute any significance to it.

That is why it is very difficult for us to focus on the group. Whatever the environment deems important, that is what’s important to us as well. If the world considers work in the group to be unimportant, then we also forget about it at every second. Even if we try to extend a thread of connection, to listen about it and to maintain it in our thoughts, it still seems infantile, unrealistic, and naïve to us, and that is because it is not important to the greater world. And vice versa, if the most unrealistic thing becomes important to everyone, then we would think about it, talk about it, and aspire to it.

That is why we need the “social opinion,” the confidence, the mutual influence that convinces us that we are doing something real and that our world is really not worth a thing. What do we have here besides a fleeting life full of suffering? If it weren’t for the unique opportunity to acquire eternal, perfect life during this time, then there would be no use from this world for us or for our children.
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From the 5th lesson at the WE! Convention 4/1/11

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Did You Order A Tour To The Spiritual World?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should I experience all of the Kabbalistic terms that we study in Talmud Eser Sefirot, for example, NHY and Nefesh?

Answer: When you attain the spiritual world, you will feel the Light that is called NHY or the Light of Nefesh. You will feel it! And then you will also understand what Kabbalists write.

This is called, “a person’s soul will teach him.” You will feel it, and from your sensation you will also understand what it is called. It’s like you find yourself in an unknown city where you look at some buildings that cannot be recognized from the outside, and you say, “This is a theater that was built 300 years ago. And that’s a museum.” Thus, you describe everything you see. As you recognize things, you reveal their names, their essence, and absolutely everything.

This is called spiritual attainment and it means that a person’s soul teaches him. It’s as if there is an instructor inside of you who teaches you. This is your soul. That’s because you tune into the same sources. Where did Kabbalists get this knowledge from? Only from their attainment. Where did Adam HaRishon get it from, being the first person who attained spirituality? He revealed his inner world, the spiritual world.

This is not an imaginary world that appears as our world in this external shell of our body. When we enter inside, we see the spiritual world. There, Adam revealed everything and he began calling all the parts of reality by different names. He gave them names. That is how you will also know what every element of the spiritual world is called.
From the lesson on 3/25/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Raising The Contrast Of The Picture Of Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanNature is absolute good and therefore everything must be evaluated by the final state to which it is leading us. In general, “nature” and “the Creator” is the same thing. So why did nature arrange things so that in the process of our development we have to go through so many unpleasant, problematic, and atrocious states on the path to the good finish line?

The answer is simple: Goodness as such does not exist. We reveal it only in comparison to evil. There is no good without evil, and therefore we must reveal flaws along with their compensation over and over again. That is the only way we can acquire depth of sensation. The contrast between good and evil brings us understanding, and on the path leading through a procession of states, we gain experience in transitioning from evil to good.

In this constant movement we accumulate all the evil inside of us, and above it all of the good, and then we become aware of the gap between them, the abyss between infinity with a minus sign and infinity with a plus sign. All of this fits inside us, is absorbed in us, and becomes our vessel or volume.

Good and evil, plus and minus cannot exist in us separately. There is no Creator without creation. We talk about the Light only in the context of a vessel that is already present inside. We do not view the Creator separately from creation, which He created. It is impossible to say whether anything existed previously because the very notion of time, the very basis of perception disappears. There is no one to say anything and no one to say it about. Everything is only attained by creation. Even though it is secondary in relation to the Light, it is so only in terms of cause and effect.

The Ari writes, “Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, the Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.” In other words, the Light already fills reality, exists in it, and is subject to perception or sensation. Having attained that reality, a Kabbalist tells us about it. We will never be able to discuss anything we did not attain inside our vessels.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/11 on Global Education

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Why Did The Big Bang Happen?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: On the Internet, two approaches to the evolution of the vegetative and animate world are constantly clashing with each other: Darwinism and creationism. What does the science of Kabbalah say about this?

Answer: Frankly, Darwin is right in almost everything. Perhaps, even this reservation is unnecessary since he was simply misunderstood. After all, he was a deeply religious man.

Evolution really does progress in a consistent way where one thing follows as the result of another. Successive development is instilled in nature, and we cannot deny this. However, it does not happen in a random fashion at all since the egoistic desire is constantly searching for possibilities to realize itself to the maximum.

The desire to receive lives in each passing moment and cannot peek into the future. It does not know what it will give rise to in a few more stages. The desire to receive has an exclusively egoistic approach: “How do I get what I want? How do I fulfill myself?”

If this desire is working and the mind serves it, then any kind of progress, any successive development, is absolutely impossible. After all, you are constantly threatening your egoism. Under such conditions, evolution would not have moved beyond the very first particle of the universe.

However, the science of Kabbalah talks about the Reshimot, informational data instilled into the initial spark from which the entirety of matter emerged. These Reshimot are activated one by one in a chain, and the common desire realizes them, building up the matter.

This is precisely the factor of successive development. In Darwin’s theory, we see its external manifestation, but the essence is in the inner engine, the origin of the forces of evolution. They come as a result of the Reshimot.

What was in the primary point from which the Big Bang thundered? Was there really the entirety of the Universe’s matter instilled in it? Logically, such an assertion makes absolutely no sense. There were only two things in this spark: energy and information. They included in themselves the entirety of creation, and development started from them. Energy (Light) impacted the information (Reshimot), and the process took off.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/2011, The Principles of Global Education

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Wake Up

Dr. Michael LaitmanLet me tell you a secret, but it’s only between you and me. Listen: We live in a marvelous, fantastic world. Everything is wonderful; there is only goodness, peace, and conciliation anywhere you look. But you don’t feel any of this. You are turned off, lying unconscious without any feeling or sparkle.

Why? It’s because your reality is one-sided. Without connecting to its opposite, you don’t feel anything. That’s because you were created, and creation cannot discern light without darkness.

Motionless and impassible, you exist in the Creator. So how can He reveal this wonderful world to you – or in other words, reveal Himself? How can the Creator reveal Himself to you?

There is just one means: to disrupt your sleep with a drop of evil so that by tasting it, you would wake up and find yourself in infinite goodness. And that is what He is doing.

Otherwise you would remain without feeling forever. You would not be able to assess your state, measure it, or understand where you are and who you are. You wouldn’t have any ground beneath your feet.

Through the dream you hear and hope that it is possible to draw a connection to that eternal foundation in which you exist, to place yourself in constant dependence on it and no matter what happens, to measure and check your sensations only by it.

When you do this, everything sorts itself out for you and there is no evil in your world. That’s because everything that becomes revealed to you, all the opposite, dark contours are only meant to emphasize and highlight goodness and light in your eyes.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/11 on Global Education

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By Definition, We Cannot Understand Each Other

Dr. Michael LaitmanWithout correct definitions there is no common language. We seemingly use the same words, but each word has a completely different meaning for us. Let’s say that we started to teach a foreign language to someone, but gave arbitrary definitions for the words. Our student would begin speaking with someone, and neither would understand the other. As regular people, scientists and philosophers do not understand Kabbalists.

In general, this is the problem with all human relationships because each of us has our own particular definitions for the words. Usually, these differences are not significant, but, nevertheless, this is why it’s so difficult for us to communicate with each other.

Regarding the differences between the usual definitions accepted in science and philosophy and the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is absolutely no comprehension at all. It seems to people that they already know what the spiritual world and the Creator are. People feel that they do not need to change themselves to attain Him in their sensations. They do not understand that they perceive the whole world in their egoistic desire and that spiritual perception requires reaching similarity with that which is being studied.

Until we arrive at a common denominator here, it is impossible to talk. By definition, we do not understand each other. Scientists are smart people, but unfortunately, they use different definitions.

Kabbalah states that the perception of reality depends on the person, on his qualities, egoistic or altruistic. We perceive the whole of reality inside ourselves; nothing exists outside. Everything is relative.

It is difficult for scientists to agree with this. They do not have such prior assumptions before their studies; they do not need them. Science studies everything inside of the egoistic desire and does not come outside of that boundary. That is why they are not sensitive to such subtleties, being inside the desire, according to its size and qualities.

Furthermore, for them, everything is already apparent. They are inside one, small room and study things only inside of it. You might say, “But, I am studying things in the next room. One could come out of that room into another one, and study things there.” But they are perplexed: “Is there another room?” There is no need, understanding, or perception that such a thing could exist. That is why they consider Kabbalah a philosophy which is allegedly detached from reality. For them, science, studies, and facts are only here in our world.

In other words, in his development, a person has not yet come to perceive that there exists a reality higher than the one we perceive with our limited organs of perception. For this, the respective internal qualities are needed, the revelation within the person of the spiritual gene (Reshimo, reminiscence) so that he begins to agree, accept, and feel such definitions.

In reality, only blows are of help here. The Light hits the desire again and again, letting the person feel how he is thrown up and down. Thus, little by little, he begins to grasp that such a thing really can exist.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Getting Rid Of Delusions

Dr. Michael LaitmanPhilosophy and the majority of people in general believe that the material world was born out of the spiritual one. Indeed, Kabbalah states the same: After the breaking of the worlds and the collective soul, desires lost their screens, became egoistic, and descended lower and lower until they fell into “this world.” This defined our existence in this world and all our senses, organs of perception.

It follows that we “came” here from the spiritual world and no other place. One way or another, corporeality is the consequence of spirituality. The only question is whether the corporeal world completely separated from the spiritual world or does it still have some indirect connection to it?

Neither the philosophy nor natural sciences of this world are able to examine the force of bestowal, being only inside the egoistic desire. For this reason, they have no contact with the spiritual world and can only fantasize about it.

There are “scientific” experiments of whatever is considered to be the “soul,” or an alleged connection to it that can be grasped, which are based on incorrect definitions of the spiritual world. These also are philosophic arguments of people who lack any research instruments and a real connection to the spiritual world, meaning a scientific approach, and they simply assume things.

People can imagine anything. There are no limits to human fantasy. For example, there were observations in the changes of the human body’s weight before and after death. Supposedly, the difference determined the weight of the soul. This is how they weighed the soul. They also registered electrical impulses in the brain at the moment of death, and they considered this to be the manifestation of the soul leaving the body.

What about the different hallucinations in the brain at the moment of a clinical death, the nature of which is similar to dreams? These were considered to be sensations of the spiritual world where the person “rises” and then “returns” back to us as they regain consciousness.

All these fabrications are caused by the absence of a correct definition of the spiritual world. This is why people become confused and think that they can touch the spiritual world and examine it.

However, the spiritual world is a reality that is above our egoistic desire, above our matter. Here is where the problem of the perception of reality arises because people are confused about what matter is. A famous definition states that matter is an objective reality given to us by our sensations. What do I perceive? It’s my desire.

This is confusing to people. They think that matter is solid bodies, liquid, the four foundations:  fire, water, air, and earth, or the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature. However, Kabbalists say that matter is desire, and we examine the desire which is, in fact, our own!

This is completely confusing to us. I see a metal pipe in front of me which I am completely unable to move, and I am being told that it is mine and exists within me. Here, people become totally bewildered, and it becomes very difficult to speak with them from that point on.

In other words, it is necessary to overcome many obstacles, until we attain a point of view and definition of all the phenomena which will enable us to view reality together with scientists and philosophers. So far, everyone is in his own niche, which leads to a huge confusion.

The main problem is in the different definitions of “spirituality” and “corporeality.” Most frequently, people assume that culture and different human activities fall under spiritual life. In this sense, dancing is also spiritual.

These incorrect definitions really confuse people and prevent serious conversation. For this reason, first of all, the world needs to be given correct definitions of spirituality and corporeality, life and death, and the upper reality.

This way, we will solve all the problems. The correct definitions need to be firmly engrained in your head, and you should view reality only through them. Then, you will not make mistakes for sure.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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A Scientific Method: “We Will Do And We Will Hear”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does the need for a scientific approach go with the principle of “We will do and we will hear?”

Answer: These goes together very well. “We will do and we will hear” is a pure scientific approach which exists in true science. This is because science constantly reveals phenomena that were previously concealed from us. We had no factual knowledge nor connection to them. All we had was our desire to reveal, develop our perception and abilities, in order to grasp new, additional phenomena, test them on us, on our own flesh, on our senses, and register them. Relying on this data, we gathered a more robust image of reality where we exist.

The same approach operates in Kabbalah. It is a science just like a regular science as it is our aspiration to reveal a new reality. There is no difference.

However, in the regular natural sciences of this world, we are not required to change our senses. We only need to expand them. The research instrument already exists: It is our desire to receive pleasure. We simply must expand it through different microscopes, telescopes, and other tools that raise our sensitivity toward previously concealed phenomena.

The entirety of reality divides into two halves: reception and bestowal. In order to check, examine, and study the reality that is based on bestowal instead of reception, we primarily need to arm ourselves with the corresponding instruments of perception (Kelim, vessels).

It is no longer enough to simply expand our senses. We need to build new organs based on bestowal from scratch. This is called birth in the spiritual world.

In the spiritual world, a different nature where we study the force of bestowal, our ability to test, examine, and register data depends on the expansion and development of our senses. It happens the same way as with our egoistic organs of perception when we build different auxiliary tools.

This is how a higher science called Kabbalah appears. It is referred to as “higher” because it works with the force of bestowal in nature, while the sciences of our world examine the egoistic force of reception.

However, in the end, we discover that there is only one source for both the force of reception and that of bestowal. This is because this division only exists in relation to us; we divide reality this way. However, in truth, they both come from one source: the upper force.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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All Sciences Examine The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is an ancient connection between Kabbalah and philosophy. Philosophy seems to be the foundation of all the sciences. There were no separate sciences a thousand years ago such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, and astronomy. A scientist did everything and was even a doctor at the same time.

This general knowledge was called philosophy which translates as “love of wisdom,” knowledge. Johann Reuchlin, a famous philosopher of the sixteenth century wrote, ”My teacher Pythagoras, the father of philosophy, took his teaching from Kabbalists … he was the first who translated the word Kabbalah, unknown to his contemporaries, to the Greek word philosophy.”

The connection between Kabbalah and philosophy, and all the sciences in general is very deep. Really, science is already a part of the revelation of the Creator, His actions, which are not just revealed through the sensations of the body, but through the mechanism in us which is called “man” and already pertains to the human degree, even though this is still a person of this world, nevertheless.

Before its connection to Kabbalah, ancient science was developing on the animate degree. It was only after Kabbalah became revealed to the first man, Adam HaRishon, and developed for twenty generations until Abraham and on, as it revealed the Creator’s actions, that the modern science of this world could appear upon this foundation.

We as though do not see a connection between the one and the other. After all, regular science is built on the basis of the human mind and sensations, an egoistic desire to receive pleasure where we reveal the world, and seems to be disconnected from Kabbalah and the spiritual world. However, in reality, this is not the way it is because it examines the same actions of the Creator, which only become revealed in a different, egoistic matter.

These are the Creator’s actions which point to the connection between the parts of reality. For this reason, even the regular, natural sciences are also a sort of a revelation of the Creator, only on our earthly level.

This is because nothing but the Creator exists in the universe, and everything that we reveal are His actions. Only we can reveal Him in our egoistic desire, and then this is called natural sciences. We can also reveal Him in the desire to bestow, and then this is called Kabbalah.

However, it is revelation of the Creator in both cases. The Creator is one, and He does not divide in two. It is we, the researchers, who divide Him this way, depending on the desires where we perceive Him.

From the Creator’s side there are no separation; all the divisions happen in relation to us. This is how we get the eternal problem of how one thing connects to another and how they influence each another.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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We All Want To Make The Fairy Tale Come True

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The theme of the upcoming convention is, “We make it real.” What do we actually have to do to make it real?

Answer: “We make it real” means that we are revealing the true reality instead of the one we imagine through the prism of egoism, the will to receive.

We include two forces: the will to receive and the will to bestow. If we are under the power of the will to receive, and the will to enjoy only gives us a slight life force, then everything we feel, determined by the role of reception, is called this world. But if we reach the state where everything will be determined by the will to bestow, it will be called the upper, spiritual world.

Thus, there are two forces in the world and you determine what you want to feel, in what world or reality you want to be. If your will to receive rules over the will to bestow, then you feel this world. And since the will to receive is limited by the amount of pleasures it is able to absorb inside, therefore our life is limited.

However, if you want to experience yourself in the will to bestow, then you will feel bestowal, and that is already life and eternal, unlimited development. Our presence in the will to receive is real. It exists and we are in it, but it is far away from life because we only imagine that it really exists. The entire realty of the will to receive, its very matter, comes from the will to bestow that is present inside it. That is why it is unreal, similar to a children’s blow-up toy. We get the impression that it is alive, but the air filling it, its entire life force actually comes from the will to bestow; it is not its own. That is why our world is called an “imaginary world.”
From the lesson on 2/18/11, Writings of Rabash

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