Entries in the 'Perception' Category

The Binary World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that our desire to give is make-believe.

Answer: Of course, it’s make-believe now. Why would I want something so “otherworldly?” What would I get in return?

For instance, being hungry myself, would I be able to feel another person’s hunger? No, I wouldn’t if such a calculation is not “in sync” with my Kelim (vessels). A person always acts based on desire. How can I want something beyond the reach of my desire? It’s impossible; it’s not instilled in nature.

A tree is a tree, a stone is a stone, and a desire is a desire. The mind is next to it, assisting it to be filled with the desired. There’s nothing else.

Ultimately, we are talking about the very simple “building blocks” of the universe which operate on a binary principle: yes or no. There is no multiplicity nor complication. All that is complex is a sum of these binary components that represent existence or absence. There is no in-between, only total darkness or total light. Then, the very same binary elements generate and build a whole system of nuanced relationships between them.

So, if I want something, I am thinking only about what I want. If I really want something specific, such as a carrot, it means I don’t feel any lack for a banana. The banana doesn’t exist for me at that moment; I am fixated on what I want. This can be seen clearly with children. Computer memory-elements function according to the same principle as do our neurons: yes or no, a “click” or its absence.

Therefore, it simply can’t be that being a receiving desire, I would feel in it a desire to give. I neither understand nor feel what others want. I can feel inside of me only a form called “the other,” but it manifests itself inside my desire.
[33737]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Kabbalah: Revelation Of The Entire Reality Within You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: A certain influence descends to us from the upper root (the thought of creation) from Above downward through all the worlds and finally reaches the final point, this world. It includes the exterior and the interior parts: the five upper worlds and the created beings.

The entire universe is worlds and souls which exist inside the worlds. The wisdom of Kabbalah examines everything except for the actual root: how it spreads from Above downward and then returns from below upward, which all happens in relation to the person attaining it.

There is someone referred to as “man” inside this system (so far, we do not know who he is). Everything that is being revealed in relation to him is called the wisdom of Kabbalah.

At this moment, I exist in the reality of this world, and I perceive everything through the five senses: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. They help me reveal and perceive whatever happens outside of me, but I do not know what is actually happening there.

Physicists say that we are being influenced by waves and that nothing but waves exist. Chemists say that these are reactions between certain substances, molecules. However, what matters is that I perceive certain influences and react to them. This is my inner perception, and others could react in a different manner.

We are all people, and we all operate the same way. For this reason, we kind of perceive the same things. Another being would feel a different reality. Every being perceives the world according to his properties, character, and informational genes. People, animals, insects, plants, and even rocks perceive themselves and their environment in different ways.

However, Kabbalah only speaks of the way humans perceive the world. Although there are differences even here, we still have a certain common perception. We still kind of understand one another. Our impressions coincide so much on the still, vegetative, and animate levels that we are completely at one with them.

The difficulties in perception only begin on the human degree where psychology, individual characteristics, perceptions, and sensations begin. If we examine solely the influence on the five senses which has not yet been deformed by the factors of psychological perception, then everything we perceive in them is referred to as the perception of this world, so far without your nerves and thoughts layered upon it.

When we attain the entire five spiritual worlds this way, this is called the wisdom of Kabbalah: the entire descent from Above downward, from beginning to end and back from the end to the beginning, all the objectives and systems, causes and consequences, everything until the very last detail. Thus, Kabbalah explains who man is, his purpose, the reasons for the need to descend from Above downward, and what awaits us at the end of the ascent.

This wisdom incorporates everything. It incorporates physics, chemistry, and a person’s life in this world. Everything is inside there. Kabbalah is the revelation of the entire reality inside the person attaining it.

Man ascends through the spiritual worlds and attains the reality in one of its sections: the first, second, third degree, and so forth. When he ascends to the next degree, it becomes clear that all the previous degrees are included in this degree.
[33956]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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The Common Problem Of Seven Billion People

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe think that each of us has their own issues and their own problems. “I wish to reach spirituality and I don’t care for the rest of the world. Sometimes I think about them, but essentially, what does it matter? Where’s the world and where am I?”

Obviously, it is a normal egoistic response. But what can one do? We have only one choice: Think really hard about how we are connected with one another. Kabbalah states that all humans are interconnected. We already feel it, and today we are more or less aware of it.

Alas, there aren’t any results from it yet. It’s evident that governments and individuals alike, no matter how smart, still can’t change and continue to live inside their personal, egoistic shells. But the problem is actually global and can be resolved only if we get connected.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that all of us are separate individuals tied together by various types of connections. It is an enormous, heavy, very intricate, and very multifaceted system comprised of seven billion interconnected parts.

In this system, I can feel my “self” within myself, and then I sense our world. Or, I can feel what is outside of me: the other parts and the ties between me and all the others. In that case, I will perceive the upper world outside of me.

It is regarded as upper because I am governed by what is supplied to me from everybody else. Everything that occurs in me does so because ties from all seven billion parts run to me.

Then how do we solve the current problem that Nature forces onto us? It looks like we have to find a benevolent connection between us because it is the integral system that sends us all these troubling signals.It requires that we transcend ourselves and start feeling the surrounding space. Outside of me, there is the world of Infinity. Thus, we must all step outside and experience the field that lives between us. No one can feel it inside oneself.
[34028]
From Lesson 2 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

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Perception Of Reality: From Newton To Kabbalah

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe live in a fairly confusing world. And people ask themselves about where they live, where they exist. Generally, we did not ask these questions over the course of thousands of years. We thought that the world we live in is this world. This conception is called the “perception of the world according to Newton.”

Then, as we advanced in our study of nature, we discovered that other beings, which are different from humans, perceive the world in other ways: Snakes perceive it in the form of heat spots; dogs perceive it as a cloud of smells; bees perceive it divided into many sectors, and so on. In other words, every being perceives the world in different ways and is guided according to its sensations. And this does not prevent us from existing in one dimension, where we all perceive the world in absolutely different ways.

Then a different paradigm came about. Einstein came and proved that everything is relative: time, space, movement, and there is nothing absolute. In other words, our perception of reality is just our habits, and we could perceive it in a completely different way.

If we were to move at a very fast speed, if we were to orbit around large celestial masses, time and space would become deformed, and we would feel, see, and perceive ourselves in absolutely different ways. This is perception of reality according to Einstein, which is the theory of relativity: Everything is relative to man. The next scientist, Hugh Everett, proved that the world which we perceive in relation to us, that is, which depends on us practically does not exist; we build it in our sensations.

And then the wisdom of Kabbalah appeared, which was concealed for almost 6,000 years, and it was always written in its books that neither we nor the world exist as we perceive it; everything is only relative to our senses. If we were to change our senses, the world would change.

In other words, according to Einstein’s theory there is an observer and the object of observation. According to Hugh Everett’s theory there are an object and an observer, both of which constantly change, and we are able to perceive something average between them. But we can also even perceive on demand, according to our inner qualities. This is what Kabbalah speaks about.

Why do we need all this knowledge? We need it so we could finally understand where we live, the world we exist in. Films like “The Matrix” and “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” appear, which convey assumptions and ideas that the dimension that we perceive through our physical senses is not the dimension we live in.

We have vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. We perceive whatever falls within the scope of these five senses. Our image of the world is based on this.

But if we were to begin to disengage these senses, the image of the world would begin to decrease and disappear. In other words, what we perceive is not what actually exists outside of us, but our reactions, our inner influences, the so called “disturbances” to things we do not understand.

But what world would we perceive if we were to free ourselves of our five senses? This is where Kabbalah comes in and tells us how we can rise above these five senses and begin to perceive the world as different, additional. We can begin to perceive nature, the world, the way it exists outside our bodies, outside our five senses, in addition to the world where we now exist in our bodies like any live organism.

We have a rudiment of this perception, the so called “point in the heart.” This is neither a heart nor a point in it. This simply is a name for a rudimentary and dormant sense that we have. We can develop and use it to begin to perceive the world that we can imagine outside of our bodies.

So, Kabbalah speaks about the world that exists in reality outside of us, outside our five senses, outside the flow of information that enters us. This is why it is called “Kabbalah” ( “reception”), a guide to acquiring a real perception of the actual reality.
[33985]
From Public Lecture in Berlin 1/27/2011

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Tell Me Who You Are, And I Will Tell You What Your World Looks Like

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything occurs within a person. On the spiritual path, he starts realizing that there are no forces outside of him. The forces of nature, the strength of the group, everything is within him, and he treats it all as relevant to himself. In this case, the group enters, the friends’ forces appear within, and the person sees more clearly that everything depends on the degree of his qualities.

For example, this weekly chapter of the Torah (“Mishpatim”) tells us about judicial precepts. It prohibits marrying under certain circumstances, laying with beasts, stealing, judging unfairly, and so forth. All of this refers to the internal “lawsuit”: A person must build correct relations with his “beast,” “thief,” and “another’s wife.” Everything is within.

While arranging the forces of my soul, I continue to see the external world, but at this point, I realize that the forces of all external objects reside within me. I come to such a conclusion, becoming more aware of how my attitude changes and draws the real picture within me. I start viewing the external world as a copy, a projection, of my inner properties. It is I and only I, within myself, who changes the picture of the world by altering combinations of forces, properties, and desires.

I become more and more aware that this picture is formed and painted solely by me. As a result, its entire image changes as well. There is no other; this is the only way I see it.

A person works within with his desires, intentions, thoughts, and attitudes. This is precisely how Kabbalists advise us to relate to everything we have within. A person breaks himself down into 613 parts, desires, and sees that his inner world, as well as the outer one, does change. As soon as an attitude changes, so does the world.

Everything is now inside a person, and he finally sees the authentic picture. Time after time, he asks for the new forces of bestowal in order to reach the true form to the best of his ability.

One always has only one instrument to ascend to the next rung, his environment: the teacher, Kabbalistic texts, and the group. He constructs a place out of them where he receives the forces to change and the form of change, advancing therewith.

Thus, gradually, thanks to this work, all the enormous desire for pleasures transitions to the area of the property of bestowal, in parts, piece by piece.
[33744]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Enjoy Every Moment Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf life passes, and there are good and bad states in it, then the entire wisdom lies in our ability to enjoy the unpleasant states as well. This is what we call life wisdom: How to treat what is bad so that to see in it either our attitude to, preparation for, or part of a good state.

In fact, it is truly so, similar to feeling hungry before being satiated or tired before getting much desired rest. It cannot be otherwise. There has to be “darkness” before the “dawn,” as it is written: “And there was evening and there was morning.”

For example, I enjoy the thought that soon I am going on vacation. Then part of this vacation I am experiencing already, right now, although realistically it hasn’t started for me yet.

Then I start thinking: “Do I really need to be on vacation? Or, can I start enjoying it right here and now even more than when it starts?” And indeed, when we actually go on vacation, we don’t enjoy it as much because we enjoy the anticipation of and preparation for it.

That’s what the wisdom of life is. When we use it, we always live in beautiful illusions and enjoy each moment. And this is an authentic approach since we never get fulfilled within the desire. Everything lies solely above it.
[33503]
From the Talk with Rachel Laitman, before shooting a TV show 1/19/2011

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Everything Depends On The Observer

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we accelerate our advancement?

Answer: It is very difficult. I know through my own experience. I think the only possibility is through luck

. The mind does not work here, and nothing will help. Here, what is needed is called “good fortune” or luck, “Mazal” in Hebrew.

Or more simply, cancel yourself, turn yourself into a small cogwheel, a mechanism within the group: “I will do everything like my friends say; I do everything they want, with less of my own thoughts.” Take some kind of work and perform it automatically, without activating your feelings or thoughts, just invest yourself in it, and cling to your friends. That helps.

But overall, it is very difficult. Properly incorporating yourself in the group is the passport to success. You do not need anything else. Once you tune yourself into the group, you discover that it is completely corrected, that all the worlds exist in it, and the Creator is inside it.

Your friends do not even feel this, but once you cancel yourself in relation to them, you begin to discover it among them. And suddenly you see: “Holy smoke, where am I? Our world turns out to be the world of Infinity? Where did all the negativity go? There is none of it here! Everything is beautiful, in absolute perfection.”

This is how you see the world once you correct yourself. This is why in Hebrew “world” is “Olam,” from the word “Nehelam” (disappearing). It is relative. Just like the theory of relativity, everything depends on the “user,” the observer.
[33199]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/10, “A Prayer of Many”

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Peace Between Us Is The Creator Between Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalah describes sensing desires and the Light that fills them. Their gradual manifestation in relation to us builds spiritual worlds. The first in line is the world of Assiya with it being a small sensation. We perceive our mutual state not as dynamic; it is rather stationary and hence, it is called “still” nature.

Subsequently, we start to slowly realize that the states are mutable. It turns out they have their own dialectics and development. Thus, we transition to the vegetative degree which is characterized by consumption, secretion, and growth. We begin to feel the dynamics, our participation in the process. While sharing the same space with all the other desires (souls) and the Light that fills them, we can already exercise our influence.

Then, we feel the states at the animate level within this space. Now we can act autonomously and move from place to place. A plant, despite the fact that it can grow, is stationary, whereas an animal grows, moves, and bears living offspring. Thereby, we practically reach a condition similar to our world. Suddenly, we start feeling alive, existing in our world, but only in the property of bestowal.

Later on, the time comes for the next property. It unfolds when we learn this entire space so well that we start sensing its entire plan, Nature’s plan, from beginning to end and engage in it. That is the point when we get truly familiar with the primary thought regarded as “the Creator.”

We study all this in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the world of Infinity, all of them are the attainment of the space in which we exist. As we attain the spiritual worlds, our world with its corporeal affairs remains in our perception. It exists until we have reached complete and absolute knowledge, wisdom, and oneness with all desires and the force that fills them. Afterward, when we reach the last level, the world of Infinity, everything in it starts to interconnect and falls together; the space folds up.

And all of this is based on the prayer of the many. This means I never stop at a personal perception of what is happening with me. Having caught myself at the initial, egoistic analysis, I must straighten myself up and place myself in the right position.

To accomplish that, I make a preliminary analysis of any spiritual action: I realize that I am within all the others and that the Creator evokes hate in me, in the group, toward the others on purpose so that I can rise above it and with His help arrange everything correctly and well. I perform a calculation: Why do I need everything to be structured well?

I draw the Creator and evoke Him to appear and reveal Himself, up to a state when there is absolute peace between us, when we are as one man with one heart. We need the Creator not to install peace between us like a mother who is supposed to show up so the children don’t harass each other. He instills quarrels in us so we may call on Him and force Him to reveal Himself among us.

And when we finally achieve peace between us, it signifies that the Creator has really revealed Himself between us. And if we are still experiencing some tensions, it means that we haven’t yet revealed Him enough between us. In this way, we climb the 125 rungs until we fully achieve this.
[33211]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/10, “A Prayer of Many”

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Working In Sync

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything depends upon the environment. It has to make me more sensitive to the challenges that the upper force, which exists between us and motivates each of us toward integral unity, constantly sets before me.

On one hand, I can be very keenly, very perceptually tuned to its finest vibrations. On the other, under the influence of the surrounding environment, the society that I belong to, the group, I can comprehend how to react to its influence correctly. This is how we should act all the time.

The Creator changes me to a certain degree, so I start to feel the environment and myself a little differently, and I harmonize to it accordingly. And then it is He again, then I; His action, my action again. It becomes like ascending using two legs. This is how we move forward by way of the inner attuning of our “instrument” to a dialogue with the Creator.

If we perceive Him correctly, we start working in sync, which is exactly what is regarded as “the work of the Creator” since it is He who works. As to us, we just need to react and tune ourselves in correctly. We don’t have to do anything except to build a correct environment for ourselves: the Creator on one side, the group on the other, and me in the middle, automatically reacting to everything.

I myself cannot influence me, just as I cannot work on myself; hence, what is needed here is the collective prayer. Don’t focus on yourself. Who am I to focus on myself? I cannot do anything with myself, can I? All of our life demonstrates that we ourselves cannot change, no matter what we do.

What we are is what we will be unless we start changing ourselves under the influence of two reasons:

  1. The Creator, the integral force that fills all space between us.
  2. The group, all the others except for me. They form particles filled with the Creator, inside which I reside.

Essentially, I have to find harmony with the other particles. They are harmonized with each other and the Creator, and only I in relation to them am not in balance, in the correct state, or integrated. This is what a person’s job, his attuning himself to the group, is.

While I am moving closer to it, I start feeling the upper world. I feel the Creator’s presence not somewhere “out there,” but between us. In the void between us, where all these “elementary particles” (our desires) are, I start feeling everyone’s desires, while the Light is between them.

The force that fills us, the integral desire consisting of individual interconnected desires, is called a Kli, vessel, or Malchut. And the Light that is revealed between us in our shared aspirations toward spirituality is what we call the Upper Light or the Creator. That is what we feel, and that is what the upper world is.
[33214]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/10, “A Prayer of Many”

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