Entries in the 'Perception' Category

Inside The Ego’s Trap

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person is faced with a big problem: How does he know what world he is living in? How is he supposed to view reality? What perspective should he choose? How does he detach from the inner deception and see not what he wishes to see in his egoism, but rather an objective view devoid of ego’s attributes, desires, and emotions?

We know that we judge according to how corrupted we are and look with subjective, biased eyes which fully distort our perspective of life. The world does the same. We witness how throughout history people were deceived in their perception of reality, their approach to life, unable to comprehend the world they were living in and why.

A person who studies Kabbalah has an opportunity to see the truth, but a person who is locked in the internal sphere of our world, bound by this small circle, cannot see anything that goes beyond its boundaries. Inside it, he sees everything according to his ego, based on his personal benefit, and is unable to think about anything else.

Either way, all his aspirations are aimed inward, solely toward his inner point. Hence, it can’t be that he can develop a desire or thought to see something outside of his own, innermost interest. He is made initially in such way so as to be unable to see or feel anything that does not correspond with his inner point. A person cannot even start thinking about it since it is completely outside the realm of his perception.

There may be another reality next to him that is billions of times greater and more powerful than the one he experiences in his inner egoistic point, but he has absolutely no interest in it and, therefore, can’t see it. His information genes (Reshimot) dictate that he should care solely about things that involve only himself, and that is exactly what he does.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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The Complicated Path Of Attainment Of The Divine Simplicity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If everything in our world originates in the upper roots, where do all kinds of artificially invented objects come from, those that do not exist in the nature, such as a vehicle on wheels for example?

Answer: All of nature is a picture that appears in me, and all of it descends to me from Above. In the spiritual world, there are no automobiles, but the notion itself has to exist; otherwise, how would we make it up?

In their obvious form, the roots of the upper world manifest to us as four levels of nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking ones. And the rest come down to us in the form of thought. All our artificial inventions (such as missiles and cars) root in the upper thought and are not a result of our observation of nature. It doesn’t expand in a direct, mandatory manner from Above downward, but rather are invented by man who completes himself with all that he lacks in this world.

The four stages of the Direct Light expand from Above downward, from the world of Infinity to this corporeal world, bringing forth the worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, and their numerous combinations. And at each degree, everything that is present in the lower one, all its forms, come to it from the upper one, although we think that at the lowest level there may be more developed forms because its lack of perfection requires finding greater diversity and combinations of matter.

Above, in the world of Infinity, everything merges into one whole, in integral oneness. That is how simple it is compared to our complex world. But in essence, this world of ours isn’t the richer one; it simply must divide into such a great number of constituents.

Below, there are billions of elements of nature: minerals, plants, animals, and man, and in each of them, there are countless multitude of details. But as we climb the rungs of the worlds, we see fewer and fewer of them.

After all, to decode the notion of oneness that exists Above, in Infinity, we need numberless elements that, when put together correctly, can re-create this wholeness in our world. And it is only natural that there is an enormous difference between the upper and lower degrees, in the extent that the lower one is more material and, consequently, requires more detail.

Besides, there is nothing in the lower one which wouldn’t exist in the upper one. Simply, the individual details that get revealed in the lower one are linked as one in the upper one and, hence, are perceived by you as one whole. But in reality, it isn’t just whole. As in the world of Infinity, everything merges into one in its aim to bestowal, and we don’t see any division. However, it doesn’t mean that all these definitions do not exist.

In the world of Infinity, there are countless elements, but all of them are linked into one whole, and therefore, it is called a simple, infinite Light that fills the entire creation. But in truth, it isn’t a “simple” Light of Nefesh, but rather NRNHY de NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida), which is “620 times” greater than what is only perceived as simple.

The lowest degree just gets to know itself in such a “complex” form. We create so many different things in it only due to our weakness since we are unable to attain the upper one otherwise. And when we reach the highest degree, we don’t need all these supplements any longer.

All the abundance of details that I have at my lower degree roots in what I added in order to complete myself relative to the higher degree. But from Above downward, it is the very same elements that keep descending to me.

The same world of Infinity is present in our world. And the entire variety of details that are added by me or revealed to me in nature derives from the fact that I am unable to perceive this “simple” world of Infinity. Everything around me is regarded as the imaginary world. All worlds are merely “disappearing concealments” of the world of Infinity, where there is nothing but desire (the will to receive) filled with the simple Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Soaring On The Wings Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are no machines, planes, electricity, bread, or water—I created all these forms out of my desire to enjoy, and this is how they appear to me. There are only the force of reception, the force of bestowal, the screen, and the Reflected Light, according to the way they can clothe into each other.

Natural forms that exist in nature come from the Direct Light, whereas those created by man come from Reflected Light. Everything we produce in this world by our work is but the forms of our will to receive created by our effort, the Reflected Light.

I take my desire and start modeling a car from it, as from plasticine or clay. It is my realization, my form, whereas the substance, the will to enjoy, is given from Above. The entire picture changes only on our screen. Similarly to how today a person is so used to a computer screen that he doesn’t even want to look around. For him, a computer screen has turned into a true reality. If we always existed inside this screen, we would have no idea that there is something else beside it.

The one and only mechanism based on the Direct and Reflected Lights operates all the time and at all levels. However, the picture will begin to change when we develop a desire to become similar to the inner force which governs this entire reality. It won’t surface for us to exist inside this reality; we will want to unite with the force that drives it from inside. We will search for it, wishing to be together with it!

And then we will perceive reality simply as matter and not as our inseparable part. Now we live inside this matter governed from Above. Yet, I wish to penetrate into molecules and atoms so as to reveal the spiritual force there, the higher mind and plan, and live in it. We will rule over matter together with Him! That is, I will elevate myself above matter, above the still, vegetative, and animate degrees.

But what about a person who today is polishing his favorite car? How can he agree that this whole world is a bluff? No insurance will pay for his car left in the Reflected Light, so what will he gain in return?

He shouldn’t worry; he will feel that he can fly even without his car. To move, he won’t need any auxiliary means of the still, vegetative, or animate levels: neither a camel, nor a carriage, nor a plane. He will soar by his own forces, the forces of man! Mother Bina will lend him her wings!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Now Is The Time For Independent Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything is comprised of two triangles: the upper one with the Direct Light and the lower one with the Returning, Reflected Light. The triangle with the Upper Light is diminishing due to the descent of the worlds from Above downward so as to supply the creature with the place for existence in which it can realize its bestowal, raise the Reflected Light.

We can make a cut at each level and see these triangles: Depending on the strength of the Direct Light, the creature is capable of raising the Reflected Light. The higher we rise, the greater the Direct and the Reflected Lights are.

It seems to us that we live in some kind of world, but in reality, there is nothing beside desire and the Light, and we always carry out the work of the Creator whether we want to or not, realize it or not, are aware of it or not, or agree with it or not. We always work for the Creator, the only difference being our willingness or not.

The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature operate without awareness, by natural instinct. But at the speaking degree, we have to comprehend, attain the root, agree with it, and only then act correctly.

Hence, while we were developing as “primitive people” having remained so over thousands of years until very recently (with the exception of Kabbalists who revealed the upper world, starting with the first “man,” Adam HaRishon), we advanced under the pressure of our egoistic desire that pushed us to evolve.

We applied a lot of effort throughout history. We worked hard to harvest the land, produced various things and products, fought, invented machines and new technologies, built houses to only destroy them later, carried out revolutions in all areas and levels of life. In short, we exerted effort to exist, to receive the Direct Light. These efforts were our “Reflected Light” in the spiritual worlds.

This is the essence of our material development. It is material because it took place inside the egoistic desire.

In our perception of reality, it seemed to us that we produced concrete and fixtures, relationships in the society, crops, but essentially, we produced the Reflected Light and inside it, received the Direct Light. Meanwhile, it seemed to us that we worked in the material world, surrounded by our machines, factories, houses, fields, and products.

This is how it seemed to our egoistic desire, whereas in reality, the desires (Kelim) with the screen and the Lights at the still, vegetative, and animate degrees were at work. And we all behaved like obedient children, carrying out everything that the Creator wanted. Nobody could escape this since that’s how the will to enjoy and the Light that acts upon it work.

And when we reach the speaking degree, considerations become completely different. This is why we no longer have the strength… The Creator tells us: “Do it yourself, alone!” And I’m at a loss: “Do it myself, while nobody is forcing me…?”

The Creator awakens me only occasionally and awaits the Reflected Light from me. Now, He wants me to do it by myself. This is the work we have to complete.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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The Light In Your Home

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Rabbi Shimon’s Exit from the Cave,” Item 186: And that light stands from the heaven to the earth and illuminates the entire world until Atik Yomin, meaning Keter, arrives and properly sits on the throne, meaning until the end of correction. And that light is entirely included in your home, meaning in his daughter, since the daughter of Rabbi Pinhas was the wife of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and from the light that was included in your home, a small and thin light comes out, which is Rabbi Elazar, his daughter’s son. He comes out and illuminates the entire world, happy are you.

There is a system called “the worlds.” The souls are hanging on it like fruit on the tree. There is a connection between the worlds (”tree”) and the souls (“fruit”), between the fruit themselves, meaning the souls, and between the parts of the tree, meaning Sefirot. They are all connected together, and all of them are merely Kelim (desires) and the Lights.

Likewise, all the characters described in The Book of Zohar: Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Pinhas, Elazar, and the daughter of Rabbi Pinhas are the illuminations within the Kelim, tied together by certain connections. This is why The Zohar calls them by names of familial relationships, such as “grandfather,” “father,” “son,” “daughter,” or “wife” depending on who it is talking about.

However, all of this is related only to Kelim or the Lights. The Lights are most important. The illumination which emanates from one place to another is called “Rabbi Shimon,” “Rabbi Elazar,” or “Rabbi Pinhas.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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The Spiritual World Is Born Between Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanMany things have appeared and disappeared from this world as technology developed and replaced them with more perfect things. However, now a different process is starting and soon all of these cars and planes will disappear from our sensation and will lose all importance.

Only forces operate in the world: Direct Light and Reflected Light, together with the will to enjoy. And this entire picture somehow appears to us on the screen in the reverse part of the brain.

That is why people’s workplaces are shifting to the computer keyboard. One might ask: What can they possibly produce on it—clothing or a house? They create some kind of artificial values: respect, power, scientific knowledge, and other things that are detached from bodily needs (food, sex, family). This is how we create a connection between people, and these efforts are now being expressed in matter. The only thing of importance is to produce Reflected Light, and if we can create it by playing with a computer keyboard, then that’s enough!

The form of reality in which we live depends on us. If I start to see everything in the Reflected Light, then I will connect the root with the branch and will see spiritual roots in the world that appears before me. Then I will begin giving more importance to these spiritual roots than their material branches. This will happen to such an extent that the material branches will gradually disappear from my perception completely because I will activate my spiritual sensations more and more.

In the material world I use only what I need to support the life of my body, and I won’t need anything more than that. That is how this world will become increasingly more transparent. However, this does not depend on every person separately, but on the common correction of the world by virtue of all the souls.

If our souls unite, they create the spiritual world between them! They will have a shared perception of the Upper World and will feel the reality that is above this material reality, a billion times more powerful than it. Even the first spiritual level is infinitely greater and more powerful than our world.

If we start feeling it, then it eclipses our world to us. Even now there are many details in the world that we don’t notice. The desire to enjoy does not disappear to any place, but when all of humanity begins building the common system of bestowal among everyone, meaning the place for the spiritual world, then we will begin living in it and making it important!

We will raise the lower, material dimension to the spiritual level. That is to say, I start viewing the material world as part of the spiritual world because I see the forces operating behind everything and do not notice any matter as I did before. In relation to me the world turns into forces, and that means that the world of Assiya and all the other worlds ascend until the very world of Infinity.

However, this does not work in relation to a separate person, but in relation to all humanity that is starting to unite together into one common soul.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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An Intervention Into The Upper Realm

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have finally matured to the human level and have become free. That is why our perception of reality will transform from a purely material one to an increasingly more spiritual one.

All of our machinery, workstations, and factories will become less material and more “transparent.” Even today half of the people are already working at a computer keyboard. But what could they possibly be producing there?

It’s clear what can be produced by working in the field, at a conveyor-belt, or by mining oil and coal. But what can you create by striking the computer keys? Soon the whole world will sit by computer screens. So will we be able to change the world through them?

In reality, this is how we create new matter, one that’s more spiritual. We will no longer need cars or planes because everything will shift to this virtual form. In reality it doesn’t matter one bit in what form we imagine everything. The most important thing is our effort, the Reflected Light we produce.

The Creator continuously moves upward, farther and farther away to give us the opportunity to expand our intervention into the upper realm with our Reflected Light. This is the kind of movement upwards we have begun from today onwards.

In reality, the entire difference is only man’s perception, his sensation of himself. In the past he was forced to work by the egoistic desire to enjoy, but now his effort lies in preferring the Reflected Light and bestowal over reception. This is called the human level.

In any case, one way or another, every person will work. The only question is: Will he do it unwillingly or by his own desire? All of human history until today was also spiritual work, albeit unconscious. That is how the Creator or nature had obligated us to work.

But now He no longer desires our slave labor. He wants us to become the same as He by ascending above our nature and playing with it ourselves the way He once played with us. You have to look at yourself from above and do the same thing to yourself that the Creator used to do. That is how you become equal to Him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Tasting All The Worlds

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are desires, actions, and there is a force that created and is affecting us (“the Acting One”). We are its consequence, much like our properties and the feelings we experience in the properties created and filled by this force.

We aren’t even the product that would feel the force and its influence directly, in all the four stages of attainment. We are still very far from such full revelation. But we are never able to step beyond the boundary of sensation since we are desire that can know only that which unfolds within it.

This is why we can’t know the essence of things, not only in the spiritual, but even in the corporeal world, be it electricity, bread, water, the upper Partzuf, or the spiritual Light. All of them are merely the sensations I experience within my desire. It is a derivative of some impact that evokes and fulfills my desire: I feel the result of a certain act performed by some force in some properties.

That means that I, too, am a certain consequence, a certain combination of forces I know nothing about. All that has existed before and created me is unknown to me. I only know that I already exist and somehow experience myself as some mineral body that occupies space in the universe.

Nonetheless, all of them are merely my experience of myself, according to the properties assigned to me by the Creator. But whom am I truly? Could it be that I have some other form except the one that I am seeing right now? I don’t know and will never know that. I am the desire to enjoy, which perceives itself in this manner, and I attain only the matter and the form that this matter acquires by experiencing it as pleasure or pain.

As to the abstract form and essence, we do not attain them and don’t suffer in this regard since it doesn’t manifest in the matter. We don’t know the essence of the most familiar things around us. What is bread or sugar? We know only how they taste. I swallow the force that looks as a piece of bread to me and occupies a certain volume presented to me as such in my sensations. This force fills some empty area within me, and I think it is real matter since matter is a desire which receives fulfillment.

In a similar way, later on, we reveal the spiritual reality, its specific “tastes” by giving them names. We attain the Creator by His actions and start tasting the flavors of the Sefirot and Partzufim: Zeir Anpin has one flavor while Malchut another. And so, gradually, we attain all of the flavors, until we get to know the taste of how wonderful the Creator is. To know the taste of the Infinite Light means to receive it for the sake of bestowal, enjoy the adhesion with it, fulfillment, and love.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Maturing To The Title Of “Human”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we start advancing the right way and become integrally connected with one another and with all parts of the universe, then we will start understanding the world on a new level. We will ascend above this tiny world that we now perceive in our ego, where each person perceives individually, and we will begin revealing a new world—one that is eternal and perfect. We will feel it on a level called “Human,” instead of perceiving the world only on the animate level through our bodies.

I will begin perceiving myself on the level of the integral existence, connected with everyone by a single consciousness, one thought, common thinking, one desire and sensation. Then I will perceive everything happening to my animate body as a level beneath myself and my new consciousness.

Now, while existing on the level of the animate body, I do not feel pain from things taking place on the still or animate levels, such as when cutting my hair and nails. Likewise, when I ascend to the human level and enter the common, global level of thought, desire, and awareness, I won’t feel how this animate body lives or dies because I will perceive myself in a higher dimension.

We are now at the transition between these two levels and it is not simple at all. Yet, the more we begin to gain awareness of it, focusing our vision on the true world in which we already exist, the easier it will be for us to perform this transition from our present state to a higher, global, integral level in order to make it quick and simple.

Then we won’t have to go through problems, blows, suffering, cataclysms, and revolutions that have already begun happening, but will advance by a gentle, wonderful path ahead of time, before the cataclysm takes place. We will do it by making corrections in human society.

We can gain all of this by studying the science of Kabbalah, which is intended to help us rise from this egoistic, individualistic world into the integral world. Let us hope that we will be able to do this. This is essentially the purpose of the science of Kabbalah.
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From my lecture in Paris on 2/1/11

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Not A Magic Trick, But Precise Spiritual Physics

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is “the Light that Reforms,” the miraculous force (Segula)?

Answer: The force that I want to attain is now influencing me from afar. I haven’t reached it yet, but it already shines on me from afar to the degree I aspire to it.

Inside of us there are pairs of informational genes (Reshimot): ones from the Light (Reshimo de Hitlabshut) and ones from the desire (Reshimo de Aviut), with the Reshimo from the Light always being a level higher. For example, I can have Reshimo 0/1 (Shoresh de Aviut and Aleph de Hitlabshut) where Aleph de Hitlabshut is my next level. This Reshimo lets me feel some sort of aspiration to this future level—that I desire it!

Aleph de Hitlabshut is the Surrounding Light that shines for me if I awaken a desire within me on this Reshimot of Aleph de Hitlabshut. I already have some kind of vestment (Hitlabshut) of this Light—something from the next level! That’s because Reshimot from the Light are always a level higher than the desires: 0/1, 1/2, 2/3, and so on.

This informational data (Reshimot) have remained in us from our descent from above downward. They are completely tangible and scientific notions and qualities, precisely expressed through numbers and changing discretely to the degree I ascend from one level to the next while realizing Reshimot.

By working with my current Reshimo I awaken the Light on a higher level because in my Reshimot I have a part of the future Light. We descended from Above downward in such a way that we retained a connection between the levels: the lower part of the upper level is immersed in the upper part of the lower.

This is a completely precise system. We call its action “a miracle” (Segula) because we are unable to check it in our desires or instruments of perception right now. For now these desires are only growing by virtue of the Light we attract. But all of this is precise physics and not some sort of magic tricks or prayers about what might or might not happen.

If you activate this system precisely as Kabbalists explain, then you turn on its mechanisms. You are inside of this system and you turn on this machine so it would work on you. This is what you are being taught.

You don’t have to go until the very end to see the results. You gradually begin to see the proof of what you study. Even if you haven’t attained the spiritual sensation yet, you already notice how on this path you open up your inner world, your sensitive perception, mind, and the knowledge of the interconnections in reality. You begin to notice this even in relation to the material world and you understand how childish the behavior is of other people around you and how confused they are.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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