Question: How can concentration of thought bring a person to the revelation of the spiritual world?

Answer: Everything is clarified in the thought. We are not talking about our mind which was artificially “pumped up” in a university so that we would become “smart.” The mind is the power of analysis and synthesis, the power of the connection of opposite opinions in one person.

Bina, which we consider to be the desire to bestow, is thought. Thought is Malchut de Hochma,, while Malchut that receives from Hochma is Bina. The collective Malchut which rises to Bina and becomes its Nukva is also Nukva de Hochma since it desires to reach Hochma, not Bina.

In other words, thought is fundamental. Thought is my ability to perceive in Malchut the higher qualities of Hochma and Bina and to work with them. The mind is my ability to build equivalence to the Creator. The universal connection that I reveal is the mind, wisdom, the network [of interconnected souls].

Our brain is arranged in the same, exact manner. The intellect or the mind is the measure of life force, the ability to understand, control, activate, and perceive.

Where does it come from? It is a consequence of two forces: the force of Bina (the desire to correspond to the Creator) and the force of the Creator (who clothes the creature to the extent of this correspondence). This is the mind of the creature: the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothed in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).

Therefore, if we try to attain this network, to understand what connections exist in it and according to what laws it operates, and if we want to know how to reveal and recognize the connection that already exists between us, we achieve what is called “the creating mind,” the Creator, and attain Him. As it is written, “From Your actions, we know You.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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All that we feel and see around us is only a play between the Light and the vessel (Kli), the Light and desire. And since they differ in their properties, in the middle between them, there is the world, the reality that we perceive. It represents exactly what we still lack in order to attain the world of Infinity.

That’s why the word “world” (Olam) means “concealment” (Alama). All forms of life that we observe around us, namely, the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels either in the material or spiritual world, show us the deficiency that we need to “fill” in order to reach Infinity.

After all of them disappear, we see only the Light that completely fills all desires, the entire sphere; it indicates that we have reached the corrected state. Until then, we feel all kinds of forms, and this is a sign that we have not corrected all the desires to become similar to the Light, the property of bestowal.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality” 10/20/10

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Question: Who am “I,” and how can I separate myself from the reality “show?” If all my thoughts and sensations are simply a “movie,” then where am I?

Answer: At this time, you are unable to separate yourself from the “movie” you are watching because you are within it, within the pure desire to enjoy. However, if you manage to live within both desires (the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow), you’ll command both powers: the power of the Creator and that of the creature. If the Light illuminates you and grants you its property of bestowal, you’ll be able to tell the difference between you and the movie.

Today, you are incapable of analyzing your own world because you have only one desire: to receive pleasure. You have no clue whether the Light works on you or not. You are like a baby that doesn’t know who takes care of it and what’s going on. The baby cries because he feels bad, but he doesn’t even know to whom to address his cry for help.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality” 10/20/10

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Kabbalah tells us how to change our lives and ascend to a different level of existence. It’s not simply like discovering a new form of life on another planet, but it’s revealing an additional world! Our world will open up like a veil and behind it we will see a different world.

We didn’t know that the picture we see is just a screen upon which different sources of Light project a three-dimensional picture. But suddenly the invisible seam in the middle of the screen will start coming apart and we will see the forces that form this picture for us and cause it to move.

When people first saw an approaching train in a movie, they got scared and jumped out of their seats. They did not believe that this was possible. Similarly, we don’t understand that we are living inside a movie. Today there are laser shows that play pictures depicted in the air with a laser beam, where a laser is a kind of light. Likewise, the Light shows us a picture we see of ourselves and everyone else, which seems completely real to us. We feel and sense our existence because we are made of the same imaginary matter. That is why the picture of our world is very relative. In fact, it does not exist and the science of Kabbalah brings us to the realization of it.

Nature, Elokim, is gradually teaching us that we cannot control this picture. It’s as if the Creator tells us, “The movie I have put you in is getting worse and worse. Why? It’s in order to obligate you to reveal the forces standing behind the movie and to control them independently. So take control over this movie instead of me and play it yourself!” By starting to participate in playing this movie, we start to understand, feel, and attain the Creator.

From the program “Weekly Torah Portion” on 12/16/10

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, Question 36: "Place." Time, motion, and place are practically the same notion, which determines the relative change and renewal of form (desires). However, when we are speaking of the order of the descent of the levels, this is called the change of "place," whereas when we are speaking of cause and effect, it is called "the order of time."

Why are time, motion, and place practically the same notion? It’s because they are changes taking place in our desires, Kelim. The will to enjoy undergoes changes. But why do I think and feel one change as the flow of time, and another as a change of place, motion? Why do I perceive everything that happens as changes in time, motion, and place?

Isn’t motion a place? After all, if I change my place, it means I am in motion. Yet I am told, "No, this is a completely different category." However, all the categories are changes taking place in the will to enjoy. In relation to what? Only in relation to the quality of bestowal that it has, meaning the degree of its inclusion into Bina.

Malchut can become included in Bina in three forms, which are called time, motion, and place." They give Malchut different sensations. What kind? When we are speaking of the order of the descent of the levels, meaning the successive changes of states, this is called the change of "place," which is when one’s level or inner state changes. Whereas when we are speaking of the cause and effect, of what happens first and what happens next, meaning that it is not the places that change, but their order, it is called "the order of time." And if we speak about what kind of state was present in every place, this is called "place."
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: As I advance, I should be more grateful for the fact that there is the Upper Force which advances me. But I don’t know how I can do it, how can I rely on the existence of the Upper Force?

Answer: Don’t rely on it! Don’t believe in the Upper Force  until you activate your power from below. There is no Creator without the creature. We advance only according to our request, MAN, by influencing the forces of nature with it.

When Kabbalists describe the Partzufim, they tell us only about the actions of bestowal. Partzufim, per se, don’t exist. In exactly the same manner, they write about our effort and existence: There is no Creator and no worlds; there is nothing if a person does not activate his or her power of bestowal.

As soon as a person activates the force of bestowal, the worlds immediately appear, not relative to him, but in a general sense since they don’t exist otherwise. All of reality, including the spiritual world, does not exist outside of man. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah states in its section “The Perception of Reality.”

So, what can a person rely on? Outside of man there is nothing; everything is within him only. If we don’t put ourselves in motion, we don’t construct the system of worlds.

As soon as I’m willing to give, I immediately face the Light of Infinity. Then, between it and me, the worlds are born, a communication system between me and the world of Infinity. If I am not performing acts of bestowal, then nothing exists.

All of spiritual reality (we are not talking about the material world because it’s imaginary) exists within man to the extent that he has the power of bestowal. If he has no power of bestowal, then nothing exists. We can’t say that there is something outside of man unless he himself builds it, creates and implements it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: I believe when you say that all problems are mere effects of my distorted perception. But what should I do if for now, all of this is just philosophizing to me, whereas the problems are real?

Answer: If you connected to the group and became able to receive a sense of security, a guarantee, from them, you would feel as safe as in a mother’s arms. What would you worry about if you knew that you were surrounded by 600,000 souls that will take care of you? Nothing bad can happen with you since Shechina (divinity), the Creator, dwells among them. Therefore, you can worry about only one thing: how to learn to treat others as you treat yourself, and get to see that, in reality, they are you.

We need to stop believing our eyes and egoistic senses, which tell us that outside of us there are other people. It will free you from all your problems! Gradually, by using this method, you will uncover the correct perception of reality; the world will become transparent and behind each object, you will see the force that moves it.

You will suddenly see how everything falls together and will marvel at how blind you used to be! What awfully distorted lenses you were wearing! Truth be told, it all depends on your vision and perception. Nothing changes; I only attune my sight a bit, align the axes of vision, and a whole new picture suddenly emerges.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, ““A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Question: I feel threatened when we read these texts. I don’t understand them. How can I properly work with this feeling?

Answer: Maybe it’s a good feeling. We exist in a reality which is unfolding only within us. Right now, I am speaking with “you,” a part of my soul, and with other people all over the world, but all of them reside within me. And beside me, there is only the upper force split into multiple parts.

I should arrange all of my desires in order to mutually connect them with each other, incorporate all those who seem alien within myself, and love them as myself. I must merge with all of reality and become one whole with it. Then, I will see that all of it is mine, and there is only one Light that fills one desire.

And until then, I naturally get confused and undergo very obscure states. But it doesn’t threaten me. I must perceive the reality correctly, meaning that I have to begin feeling that all of this is happening within me. It is my “I,” and it is only due to my inner division that I mistakenly perceive my own parts as being outside of me.

For example, I had a surgery under local anesthesia. I didn’t feel anything, but in the mirror I saw what the surgeons were doing: inserting a needle and cutting a part of the flesh that didn’t seem to belong to me. I didn’t feel it as mine because of the anesthesia. However, since I was still aware that it was my part, despite the fact that I didn’t feel it under a local anesthetic, it was interesting for me to watch what was being done to it.

In essence, we are precisely in such a reality. But as soon as this “anesthesia,” the fog, dissipates, you start to experience and feel reality as your own, and everything looks different! Then, you see that you are dealing only with the Creator, the “Good Who does good.”

It turns out that your ability to feel the “Good Who does good” instead of a threat, to sense eternity, perfection, and harmony instead of your current state, depends on how you attach all of these seemingly alien desires to yourself.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: Why didn’t the Creator arrange it so we would already now feel everyone as organs of our own body?

Answer: It’s because you have to reveal the form of bestowal from its opposite. From hatred, reception, and exploitation of your neighbor, you have to attain love and unity.

Imagine that you suddenly found out that your greatest enemy, whom you desired to crush and obliterate using every possible execution technique, is actually your own son who you did not know anything about, just like in a movie.

You don’t understand this now, but try to enter the group and imagine that you are tuning into the common desire. Don’t look at the faces, but look at the desire that everyone shares and delve inside it. Then through that desire, you will feel that you are surrounded by special souls and only you are looking at them from aside. Try to enter inside them and to cancel yourself completely.

Through this self-nullification you will begin to live! Stay in this thought at all times so it won’t leave your mind. Make the decision that from now on this is how you want to look at the world.

Try to stay in this sensation until tomorrow, constantly renewing it and bringing this picture back. Then at the next lesson you will be ready to bring it to life! You will imagine what takes place inside these desires, which are connected with each other: How Partzufim AB and SAG operate and what Rabbi Shimon is telling his friends. It all speaks only about this desire and the connection among its parts.

Desires that are pure or impure, corrected or not yet corrected; everything is inside one system that you are now revealing. You want to reveal life, the vital force in this system and yourself inside of it, as well as to understand how everything works. This is exactly what all the Kabbalistic books talk about and you want this to become revealed.

When the connection between all parts of the desire and the harmony in which they operate becomes revealed, this practical revelation of the correct, operating connection is called the revelation of the Creator. After that the Creator or this connection will continue being revealed more and more, which signifies ascent along the degrees of the worlds toward ever greater revelation of the Creator.

The Creator is called Bo-Reh, meaning "come and see" how the system works in mutual bestowal, how the Light operates inside the desires or Kelim.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress"

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Question: Where do my desires come from?

Answer: All desires come from the upper Partzuf that clothes in and awakens you. Your desire is the Light that expanded from the Upper One, a meek illumination that triggers a desire. After all, you are a mere desire, similar to a chunk of metal. When the Light descends to you, it starts “heating” you up, doing something with you.

Where do you get a feeling that you want something? The Light that is already present in you attracts you, if only with its reverse side so far. As to the desire the Light doesn’t fill, we simply don’t experience it at all.

We are living in Malchut of Infinity as we speak. So what? What do we experience? Only this corporeal world and nothing more. Why is it so? Except for this tiny place, all the other desires in me are not illuminated, and that’s why I don’t feel them. I am not even slightly attracted to them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

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