True Reality – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on January 10th, 2011
Question: Today there are many new students present at the lesson. What advice would you give them to change their egoistic intention into an altruistic one?
Answer: In our world, we are approaching the moment of truth: We have nothing else to live for. Day by day, the world discovers that its life is empty. In reality, however, we haven’t reached the turning point just yet, and people still manage to confuse themselves and obscure the truth because they have no replacement for their present life.
We have to show them that the alternative does exist, and that we are undergoing a certain process managed from Above. We have to actualize it. It is a unique, benevolent process, a remarkable development, elevating us over life in the body which is approaching death every given second. This is what we should pass on to the newcomers.
We must rise to a new perception of reality. It doesn’t mean that I simply replace “my picture” I see from within the body. No, I don’t “switch the remote” on the external view, but rather I step out into a new reality, cross from one world to the other. I change my attitude in practice, by giving it a new vector: from within myself to outward toward others, or from within myself out to the Creator. In fact, “the other” is a remedy, an intermediary phase that helps me to aim to the Creator.
In general, I can exist in my small will to receive pleasure, perceiving this tiny, frail world. Alternatively, I can break free from it and experience eternal life, the perfect nature, where I live without restrictions in the world of Infinity. The wisdom of Kabbalah gives us this opportunity.
In the previous generations, only a few were able to experience such an internal revolution, the transition from one world to the other. But today, everyone whose point in the heart (or spiritual desire) unfolds can try to actualize it. Starting with our time and on, the entire human race will gradually, step by step, undergo this transition.
[32086]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
Teaching Children Spiritual Perception
A Speech At The Alternative Medicine Congress, 10.27.10
True Reality – Laitman Unplugged
Ultimately, we paint a picture of reality for ourselves when the Light comes in contact with the will to receive, similar to how in our world the light projects a movie upon a screen. Yet, unlike with the cinema, the Upper Light paints the image not on a screen outside, but inside of us, thereby creating a picture of reality on our matter, the will to receive pleasure.
This is why we see a live world and living creatures “in front of us” (this is how we perceive what we sense inside of us), and not the images on a flat surface. Imagine for a moment that you are drawing a little puppy that is running around you. You are creating it; it isn’t a picture, but a creature made of flesh, blood, and bones which has a mind and feelings because it is within your matter (desire). Essentially, this is all we are doing since there is nothing but desire and the Light.
If your desire awakens, rises, and reaches at least a minimal measure of bestowal, it creates new images, new creatures, together with the Light. You see for yourself, as if from aside, how your various desires change on the contact with the Light and create various forms of life. Can you imagine what reality you are living in? Before your eyes, the worlds are changing with their entire content, all of which is created by you.
Surely, you are fully aware that previously, you had also existed in a world being created in your matter. So, a question arises: Am I creating these forms, making them anew, or had they existed before and are just now unfolding in this form, along the growth of my desire and ascent on the ladder of spiritual rungs?
At each spiritual degree, I encounter new forms, a new world. Did I make this new world that I am discovering, or had it existed before me, and I am only now discovering it? The answer is that I only uncover it. But for myself, I am indeed creating it since for me, it lives in my desires.
[26052]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality” 10/20/10
Related Material:
Where Am I In This Movie?
X-ray Of My Ego
A Simple Formula Of Reality
Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: … any spiritual quality equalizes with the corporeal quality like two drops in a pond. Thus, the relationships are of the utmost affinity and there is no separation between them, except in the substance: the spiritual consists of a spiritual substance and the corporeal consists of a corporeal substance.
If your matter works “to bestow,” it is spiritual and you experience spiritual phenomena; while if it is “for self gratification,” it is corporeal. All matter is contained within you since there is nothing outside of man.
There is a void, a “zero,” and inside it, a certain creature. And if this creature has an egoistic intention “for the self,” it perceives itself in a reality experienced within as “this world.” If a person has an intention to bestow, then the entire reality he feels, including himself, is regarded as spiritual. Outside of this person, there is nothing else that exists independently. Everything is present solely within man: either in his egoistic desires or the desire to bestow.
There is no “place” or reality that exists on its own. There is only a Law that has no definite image and is regarded as HaVaYaH (the Creator’s name). If we are corporeal, meaning that we wish to receive for ourselves, then we experience this Law as material bodies living in the corporeal world. And if we are in bestowal, we experience this Law as spiritual worlds and ourselves as souls.
As one so the other, both exist solely within a person, while in reality, both of these concepts are imagined. But we don’t regard spiritual forms as fictitious and illusory since all of them eventually get collected and put together as if folding up into a singular coil. They accumulate in the process of our advancement to finally bring us to the very initial form HaVaYaH that has existed forever, if only potentially.
It existed as a construction plan for a future house, while we have actualized this HaVaYaH as a result of our personal work. We as though created ourselves and the entire creation according to this plan, and the Creator within. We have unveiled the Creator within ourselves, so where has He been until now? We don’t know that; it was Atzmuto, His unattainable Essence, which doesn’t clothe in anything.
We have prepared a place for Him and a specific expression by our actualization of His HaVaYaH in our own will to receive (desire). Hence, everything exists only within a person rather than outside of him since there is neither a place, nor reality, nothing.
A person studying Kabbalah understands where he is, what imaginary reality he is experiencing, how to step out of it to the correct perception, and how to bring this correct perception to the absolutely authentic, perfect form.
[32005]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
Related Material:
Everything Is Relative In This World
To Grow From A Zero
The Zohar About The Law Of The Integral System
Question: Could you please explain all of these forms of connection that The Zohar is describing, or can you give an example? What is the easiest way to visualize them?
Answer: The Zohar describes the forms of connection between the souls: types (lion, ox, eagle, man), Sefirot (Gevurah, Hesed, Tifferet, Yesod), letters (Chaf, Zain, Tav), colors (white, black, red, green), and so forth. When all of a sudden you experience a certain spiritual sensation, this gives you a clear understanding that it is called “the right eye brow,” that another sensation is called “the left eyebrow,” and so on; you feel it.
Suppose I look at person’s face. It evokes various impressions in me: “What a forehead! What eyes!” But they are not a forehead and eyes, but rather, my inner impressions, feelings, a phenomenon in my will to receive pleasure. I am affected in a certain way and it creates an image inside of me. Its name corresponds to the feelings that it evokes in me, but not what it really is.
The same is true in spirituality, only without the image I usually see in this world. Spiritual images exist without my participation. I unveil these forms, forces, impressions, and label them with all kinds of words: “red,” “white,” black,” “bitter,” “sweet,” “sour,” “tall,” “short,” and so on. But all of this exists without a corporeal picture.
In truth, we don’t see the images of our world outside our will to enjoy; we see them inside, just like seeing various combinations of electrical signals on the computer screen which are assembled into a movie. We have to gather all of our desires in similar combinations in order to see that this world, this form of reality that we perceive right now, is, in fact, only imagined. It doesn’t exist on its own; it only exists relative to us because we perceive it that way.
Each of us is a product of the Light’s projection, similar to the forms made by laser projectors. We are all forms, images, depicted by the Light; we just feel as if we exist in some reality, some space. But in truth, there isn’t anything real in these images. It is merely a projection of the forms that appear before me since I am still unable to perceive them in a more internal form.
[31868]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”
Related Material:
The Entrance Ticket To The Book Of Zohar
A Trampoline For Ascending Into Spirituality
All The Worlds Are Between Us
Question: In his article "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy," Baal HaSulam writes: “Even when science reaches its ultimate development, we will still have to regard only the tangible reality.” What “ultimate development” is science destined to reach?
Answer: Science will develop to such a condition when it will merge with the wisdom of Kabbalah and become part of the same movement. In fact, our world is set to ascend and clothe the upper world, having become its indispensable part and included in it along with all our actions and efforts exerted even in the matter of the corporeal world.
Nothing disappears without a trace since everything belongs to one universe, one reality. Therefore, sciences will also merge and join in the wisdom of Kabbalah as its integral part. The wisdom of Kabbalah involves all of creation, and all sciences of our world will be engaged in it.
They are already part of it, and it only seems that they exist separate from it. After all, all laws of our world are the same very laws that govern the spiritual world, though only imprinted in our egoistic matter. If matter works with the intention to receive “for self gratification” at the level of Malchut de Malchut of the world of Assiya, then it results in the corresponding laws.
In the spiritual world, intention “for myself” pertains to the Klipot, the impure forces, where such are the spiritual laws. Here, they come out as material laws, and there is no awareness of the fact that they are based on the intention to receive “for self gratification.”
If we achieve the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun), then all of this corporeal world is gradually cancelled and dissolves. We sense it less and less, and more of its parts abandon our perception.
We begin to realize how transient and temporary everything is. It is similar to how matter gets transformed from one state to another, when its forms return to their initial state: from “tangible states” of hard matter they become liquid, and then, not a very tangible state, gas, and finally, into a completely intangible one, a zero or a void.
All of this occurs in our sensations, our perception. And if our perception changes, there is no room for ordinary physics which essentially deals only with still matter, while biology, zoology, and medicine study the vegetative and animate levels of nature.
None of our sciences rise above these levels: still, vegetative, and animate. At the human level, there is no “science” any longer in the strict sense of this world; there is merely a recording process of accumulated observations of life and facts as in psychology and psychiatry.
To the extent that this world abandons our sensations at the still-vegetative-animate degrees, these planes will start to “fold up,” by ascending and getting included in the human degree. We will no longer practice these sciences since we will stop feeling these phenomena and counting them as real in the form we see them today.
This entire reality exists solely in relation to us. If all our attributes and sensory organs get transformed, meaning that reality as we experience it right now in these organs of perception changes, then what science can deal with an absent reality? Everything is relative.
[31887]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
Related Material:
When We Will Finally Have Luck In Everything
When Technology Is Futile
The Dawn Of Philosophy
A person who starts studying the science of Kabbalah discovers that his previous notions are far from reality. “Body,” “soul,” and other familiar notions acquire a completely different meaning.
The science of Kabbalah arranges everything very simply, practically not leaving you any chance to get confused. There is a desire for pleasure, inside of which different forms of bestowal can be perceived. And that is the only thing happening in our reality.
Depending on what level of bestowal you are on, that is the reality you feel. You can feel reality on level zero, in other words, you can live in our world where the degree of bestowal equals zero. We are at the very bottom, but even here there are four developmental levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human.
Then, as you ascend up 125 levels of the spiritual ladder, you will attain the degree of bestowal, or in other words, the Creator. At the end, at the 125th level you will reach 100% bestowal.
We are talking about equivalence of form or how creation acquires a form of bestowal above the desire for pleasure. You must constantly ascend in your receiving desire in order to acquire the form of the bestowing desire over it. The form of bestowal you clothe over the receiving desire brings you to the degree of bestowal because you have actualized this to a specific measure. That is how you make yourself similar and equal to the Creator, becoming human (Adam).
In essence this is very simple: You only need to combine two qualities correctly, ascending up a slanted ladder that is built of two forces or two lines: the right and the left. Thus, beginners receive clear explanations. In fact, Kabbalists do not draw a distinction between the worlds. everything depends on the person: Develop your capability for the form of bestowal and you will see more than you now do.
[32013]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
Related Material:
Learning To Live Under Warm Sunshine
The Key Issue: The Willingness To Change
Shift To The Side Of The Giver
In reality, there is nothing except forces. The forces that manifest in a certain way can thereby be in touch with our sensory organs. That’s how we are able to perceive, feel, and understand them somehow and start using them by having established that connection.
However, this force existed even before we started to perceive it. All the forms in which it manifests work solely relative to us and in order to reveal to us the first and only Force that doesn’t clothe into anything.
A soul is also a force that we cannot know if it doesn’t dress in some garment, some form that we are able to feel. To the extent that we correct ourselves, we see that all the previous forms in which we experienced these forces, such as crystalline matter, liquids, air, and even a vacuum were imaginary stages of our attainment that we have undergone. They exist solely in our imagination.
Since we lived in our egoistic desire, we were forced to experience this one Upper Force in specific forms, in these “garments” adjusted to fit our egoism’s perception. When our desire to receive pleasure is transformed and acquires its authentic form “to bestow,” we will see that all the previous forms were merely an illusion aimed to serve us in reaching the final correction.
This journey through all of the forms is really necessary for us because it teaches us how to get to know the Creator. Thanks to all the actions we have completed, we start comprehending His plan for us, His desire, and His love.
From all of these imaginary forms that we undertake while ascending on the 125 spiritual degrees through all the worlds or concealments, we get to know the Creator, as it is said: “From Your actions, we shall know You.” All of it is an illusion veiling the Creator, yet, it helps us to get to know Him.
Without taking into account all of the steps we have made and connecting them into one integral picture, it is impossible to assemble any image of the Creator. After all, we are the created beings, opposite to the Creator, and are unable to attain His essence.
[31748]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
Related Material:
The Saga Of Desires
Believe It: All Of This Only Seems To Us!
The Creator’s Greatest Substitute
Question: If we live in the holographic picture, does it change as we ascend the spiritual degrees?
Answer: This picture constantly changes since we define its form ourselves. There are two vectors or forces: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, and we establish the relationship between them. Various combinations of these two forces beget thousands of different forms before us.
Any instrument or any natural spiritual or corporeal phenomenon in all the worlds, everything, originates from the interplay between the Creator and the creature: the Light that begets desire. There are only two components: the Light and desire, and the screen between them. The screen ensures the correspondence between the Creator and the creature.
This correspondence becomes established in ten qualitative levels (10 Sefirot), which also are divided into 620 (Tarach) parts, and so on infinitely. No matter what you do: Analyze reality and divide it into its components or, on the contrary, synthesize and generalize, everywhere you reveal the same two acting forces: bestowal and reception.
[31877]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
Related Material:
The Place Where We Encounter The Creator
My Candle
Believe It: All Of This Only Seems To Us!
Descents show me that I will never realize the importance of the Creator alone; I will never come out of my egoism and find forces inside myself. However, every descent teaches me differently, by illuminating different weaknesses, qualities, and phases in me. The descents are followed by ascents, but at the end, one way or another I always discover my powerlessness.
At first I want to satisfy my egoism, which is called “knowing how many angels there are in the sky.” Then I switch my focus to the Creator, wishing to “catch” Him, to see the spiritual world. It seems to me that the door to changes has to open up in front of me rather than inside of me.
And finally, I start to understand that the changes have to happen inside of me. I catch the thread of the answer to my question: The redemption has to come from outside because I am certainly unable to do it by myself.
This work is done with the help of descents and ascents until a person comes out to the threshold of truth, having understood that everything depends on him, on the change in his perception. The Light gives you the forces to do it; you will not find them inside of you.
One’s demand is still egoistic, but he already lowers his head before the Upper Force so it will change him. Then he gradually agrees with the fact that everything comes from Above.
At the next stage a person understands that he has to acquire the quality of bestowal instead of the quality of reception. His demand is egoistic, but it is already a step forward.
After that he works with the environment in order to elicit the Light that will raise him to the spiritual treasure. As he learns about the notion of the group, he makes himself dependent on it, still hoping to derive benefit for himself.
After that the Light really does bring a person back to the Source. That’s because he built everything correctly and only one parameter remains to be changed: the intention, the end result—whose benefit does he want to attain?
That is how we reduce the path: By turning to the Creator through the group with the right request.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
Self-Test For Spiritual Progress
Preparing For Eternity
Where’s The Pleasure?
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
