Two questions I received on our perception of reality

Question: If everything in our world is built from ten Sefirot, why are there such great differences and so many species and forms? And why is there a picture that emerges simultaneously at every moment, created out of so many objects?

My Answer: Every picture consists of ten Sefirot: from the force of the Creator (Keter), through our perceptions, to Malchut, which perceives and summarizes the results of the Creator’s influence. See materials on the attainment of reality.

Question: When one starts to follow the path of Kabbalah, what changes in the general framework of all the degrees of advancement toward the root: Does the chain of specific states one goes through in the material world change, or only one’s inner attitude to them?

My Answer: Everything changes, because a person and the whole universe are one whole.

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Two questions I received on our perception of the world:

Question: How can I understand this paradox: On the one hand, we are being treated as one integral system of Adam, but at the same time we feel like individuals? And what about the individual who is incorporated into all the general suffering and woes, which happen to the entire system? How can he go through this path pleasantly and safely? And who is to blame for the fact that this system is so opposite to the laws of bestowal?

My Answer: Everything is built perfectly and logically. What you perceive is not a lousy world, but your own imperfections, your own picture of the world. If you correct yourself, then everything will radiate harmony.

It is because the screen on which you see yourself and your surroundings is your qualities, and in order to change yourself to see the world as eternal and perfect, or in other words, to live in this kind of world you depict, is by acquiring eternal and perfect qualities. This is why Kabbalah has been given to us.

Question: Why was the world created precisely the way it is? Why is there nature, attitude, change in attitude, suffering, pleasure, the will to receive, the will to bestow, etc.? Who needs all this? Why can’t we just enjoy and so be it? What is there to do for someone who has no patience and who doesn’t even have a desire to exist (not in a body or without a body, but to simply not exist)?

My Answer: The soul was created in perfection, in the World of Infinity. It lacks only one thing: the perception of this perfection. The only way to achieve this perception is by comparing the opposites of darkness and light – the absence of perfection and its presence. Its presence is there, but its absence is missing. This is why our world was created; it is the place where we have to fully perceive the absence of perfection, and together with it, return to the world of infinite perfection. There we will feel true fulfillment through these opposites.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: I Saw a Reversed World
Article: Perfection and the World
Shamati Article #34: The Profit of a Land
Lesson: Shamati Article #34 – The Profit of a Land [53:59]
Lesson: Shamati Article #34 – The Profit of a Land [53:59]

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The structure of the world is simple, because it’s perfect, and at the same time, it is extremely complex for the very same reason. Its simplicity needs to be attained, and such attainment depends on one’s similarity to the world and understanding of it.

However, as long as our consciousness remains uncorrected, we will continue complicating the picture of the world, inventing all kinds of theories (like String Theory and parallel universes, to name just two out of thousands). The world appearing before us is the world we, and only we, imagine. We can never understand what it’s like outside us. In other words, we can never understand the world outside of our our sensations and reason.

There is, however, a different world – and we can feel it if we acquire different perceptions or qualities.

According to different sensations, we can imagine the world according to a different reason. Right now, however, we are incapable of reproducing such a sensation within us.

The purpose of this world’s existence and development is to transform into a different world.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Baal HaSulam on the Perception of Reality
Kabbalah Today Article: “I Saw a Reversed World”
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 1 of 2
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 2 of 2
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 1 of 2 (Transcript)
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 2 of 2 (Transcript)

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A question I received: Why is it that during the period of concealment, you feel as though you’re in a dark room, receiving punches from every direction? It’s as if the Creator is waiting for you to fall into frenzy, or apathy… And all this happens in spite of all the work you’re doing in dissemination and the group. Is this, as the Russian proverb says, “Love her like your soul, punch her like a punching bag” (meaning, “those we hurt the most are often those we love the most”)?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, “I love her like my soul, so I punch her like a punching bag,” because your egoism has to be punched out of you, or you punched out of your egoism, so that you’ll want to part with it no matter what. The unpleasant states are precisely the states that push us out of the common egoistic swamp, to the Creator.

“The Creator spares no blows for those He loves” – this is widely explained in Kabbalah, and no Kabbalist hides the fact that “the true path to the rose is through the thorns” (through the thorns to the stars), and not through buying a fifty dollar red string or through meditating in order to relax.

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A question I received: Deepak Chopra wrote that a human organism is renewed every few hours, as well as all the parasites, viruses and diseases in it. Apparently, it’s not a matter of physiology, but programming. Can we use the power of intention to influence our body’s changes, cure serious diseases, and even grow limbs? And another question: If we progress further, can we change the reality around us or our life’s situation? And the main question: Do we need to learn how to do it if it’s possible?

My Answer: Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to a person. The Creator reveals Himself to a person to the extent of the level of correction of one’s egoism to altruism, and love toward people. This world has no miracles in it. Fairy tales are either for children or are the products of charlatans. There are laws; laws of nature. We will learn how to grow limbs, but within the boundaries of these laws. Reality depends on you, on your properties. Take a look at how you can change it: “Preface to the Book of Zohar.”

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Murphy’s Law: Murphy’s Law states that if something can go wrong, it will definitely go wrong. This law has many variations: If you drop a slice of bread, it’s sure to fall butter side down; the change in the cash register will always end just before it’s your turn; if you just washed your car, then it’ll start raining, and so on. People think that Murphy’s Law is nothing but folk wisdom, which ironically portrays our perception of the world. However, this law stems from real “wrong” things happening to real people.

The Law of the Torah: How do Kabbalists feel about the law that they discover? In my blog post “Klipot (Shells) – Harmful and Helpful (Advanced),” there is an explanation about the role of evil (Klipot), stating that everything takes place with the aim of bringing humankind to correction, either by way of good or evil, i.e. according to how one perceives good and evil. There’s just one force operating in nature, but it manifests in different ways depending on how we act. When we aim our actions at the goal of creation, this force helps us. On the contrary, when we aim our actions in opposition to those of this force, it holds us back.

Moreover, this force (of the Creator) that helps everyone who aims themselves at the goal of creation, also creates disturbances for them, which helps them develop by motivating them to move faster toward the goal. In Kabbalah, Murphy’s Law, the law on the level of our world, manifests as the law of the Upper World: “There is none else beside Him. He is good and does good!”

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A question I received: The article “Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them” states that, according to a research that was performed, “researchers using brain scanners could predict people’s decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them.” So my question regarding this is simply, do we have freedom of choice?

My Answer: A person doesn’t realize that his inner system of desires has already made all the calculations and put out the result. Such studies prove what Kabbalah has been saying all along: everything depends on our desire, and not on our external, philosophical reasoning. Thus, only the Upper Light can correct us; we cannot correct ourselves on our own.

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A question I received: How can you empirically prove that this faith (Emuna) is the right one? For example, you know that the sun exists because you see it up in the sky.

My Answer: You’re confusing faith as it’s understood by people in our world with faith as defined by Kabbalists. Faith (Emuna) is the quality of bestowal, which enables you to see a different world. It’s a different sense of perception, where you perceive outside of yourself, above your personal calculations. This is the reason why people who have faith change completely.

On the other hand, you are defining faith as believing in something somebody said. In other words, you believe that what you heard is a fact. Since it is a science, Kabbalah denies such an approach. In Kabbalah, you accept something in order to test it yourself. To acquire faith means to acquire a screen, the ability to feel, define, and measure sensations that are tuned to bestowal and love.

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A letter I received:

Shalom Rav Laitman,

Scientists explain that so called religious experiences, the sensation of spirituality can be explained by neuroscience and the structure of the brain. They are identifying the chemical pathways and brain structures that generate religious experiences.

Sony is building a new technology called, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which sends a magnetic wave of activity through the brain. Depending on the wave’s frequency, it can either accelerate or suppress processes in the areas it sweeps over. These magnetic waves can generate all kinds of sensations, but the most intriguing one is the religious experience. Tested subjects claim that they met God.

Can Kabbalah ensure us that we will not experience fake sensations of the Creator?

My Answer: It’s impossible. Anything we can do to ourselves can only suppress or arouse sensations within the limits of our egoistic nature. Moreover, anything that is higher or spiritual (the Creator), exists in the qualities of absolute love and bestowal. Therefore, only by attracting the influence from Above – the Upper Light – can we correct our egoism, and turn it into altruism. And furthermore, only to the extent of such a correction within ourselves will we be able to perceive the Upper World, the Creator.

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