Our perception of the world and sensation of life are found inside our desire since in truth, our desire is the only thing that was created. Therefore, we live and perceive everything within the self. However, there are two pictures (or formats) of our perception. We perceive one part of the picture as “us,” and the other part as the “world around us.” This perception within our desire is split in two – inner and outer, “us” and “our environment.”

Likewise, our picture of reality divides into circles that expand from inside out. These circles are comprised of the soul, the body, our immediate surroundings, and our distant surroundings. In reality, however, this whole perception exists within us, within our desire. Therefore, if we want to change the world, we have to change our desire. It’s because our perception of the world depends on our desire, and moreover, the whole world is perceived within it.

Our perception that the world exists outside of us is an illusion. The world exists entirely in our desire, but we currently don’t feel it. We relate to nature and to humanity, which are actually parts of ourselves, as something alien, and as a result of this attitude, we suffer. If only we realized the harm we cause ourselves with this imaginative view of the outside world.

It is a mistake, an optical illusion! It only appears that there are people around us whom we can disregard. We simply don’t realize that in so doing we bring miseries and problems to ourselves. Our entire lives are filled with problems and suffering only because we have this terrible and twisted perception of reality.

The science of Kabbalah teaches us how to unite our disconnected parts. Alone we are incapable of it, but we can make a request for the Light to correct our perception. Then we will see one reality, one desire, and inside it – one soul and one Light.

As we move toward this goal, we should try to aim ourselves toward unity. When reading The Book of Zohar we must continually bring ourselves back to the sensation of “the entire world is inside me.” Whatever the text may speak of, all of it is describing forces, qualities, and desires that are inside us.

All the spiritual worlds are within, while outside there is nothing. The world must not be divided into inner and outer, because it is one common soul.

By remembering this we draw upon ourselves the influence of the Light which unites together the separate parts of our perception.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 61
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 102, Lesson 41
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 27, Lesson 8
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 37
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A question I received: How should a person feel after the lesson?

My Answer: A person should come away from the lesson with a few main impressions:

• I haven’t achieved anything yet!
• I have just received a very powerful, potent medicine which will bring me much closer to the goal. These hours of my life were eternal because their benefit is priceless. I will never lose what I have gained just now and no one can take it away from me.
• It is good that I feel empty. If I felt fulfilled, it would mean that I am content with my present egoistic desires.
• It is written, “Your heart will delight in the Creator,” which means that when I am corrected, I will feel fulfilled by fulfilling the Creator. This is the kind of correction I should expect to come to me.
• All the reception and all the bestowal should come “from me” in the middle line. The right line is where I receive the Light of Correction, the Light of Bestowal, from above downward. This Light corrects me if I am completely open to it, if I let it enter me. In the left line, I use my egoistic desires to the extent that they are connected to bestowal. This means working with the Light of Hochma from below upward.
• All the changes that I expect to take place within me will bring me closer to bestowal. If I think this way, then it is impossible to feel bad.

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Preparation To The Lesson
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Shamati #25 “Things that Come from the Heart”
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 18, Lesson 11
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYashev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 11
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We have to understand that The Zohar is intended for revealing our point in the heart, and not for fulfilling our regular senses or intellect that belong to this world. You open the book and fall into despair because you don’t understand or feel it; but what kind of sensation or understanding do you expect? The Zohar impacts you in a different way, not the way you think it would.

You have prepared a barrel or a bucket (egoistic desires) and expect them to be filled with what seems like spiritual fulfillment, while you actually desire egoistic fulfillment. The Zohar, however, gives you a different type of receiving vessel – one that’s bestowing, anti-egoistic, as well as the corresponding fulfillment – the pleasure of bestowal.

These are the normal phases that every person goes through, gradually revealing his Kli, his attitude and the fulfillment he should expect. As a result all the delusions eventually fade away and one reveals the right Kli which is ready for the right kind of fulfillment.

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The Light can correct us in one instant, but in order for this to happen, we have to show it the place that needs to be corrected and the corrected form as we see it. However, this can only be achieved by making many attempts to seek out this place and to correct it on our own.

Even though our attempts and efforts are fruitless, they draw the influence of the Light, and as it shines upon us, we begin to desire to unite with others. This is something we never thought about before. In addition, the Light’s influence makes us realize that we are unable to achieve this in any way.

That is when we become ready to reveal the right desire and the place that needs correction – and then the Light corrects it for us.

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Sometimes during the lesson a person is overcome by thoughts about various “mundane” problems, which make it seem as though he has to solve them right there and then. “Mundane” in this case means everything related to our world. The mundane problems – meaning our entire world – are the conditions from which we have to ascend into the spiritual world. If it weren’t for these problems and difficulties that present themselves to us in the form of this world, we wouldn’t have anything to ascend above.

Problems at work, the bank, the supermarket, with your health, children, spouse and others, are not artificial problems of this world, but spiritual levels that descended to this level and now appear to us in their opposite form. This opposite form only appears as a bank, supermarket, health, family, work, and so on; in reality it is the Upper Level creating conditions for us which we have to use to push ourselves into the spiritual world. We have to break through them like through a thick filter. We have to go through this sifter, because that work will constitute our effort.

If we try, however, we will see that we aren’t capable of this and we need the Light that Reforms. All of these circumstances are the conditions created for us by the Upper Level. Therefore, when we understand that we are having a hard time, and that we are deaf and do not desire spirituality, that is when we have to distinguish our current animate state (this world) from the point in the heart, which is concealed and bound by this world. We have to pull that point out from underneath this mound of corporeal problems (or rather, what seems like corporeal problems) and thoughts, and raise it upwards, above them.

If a person collects himself and persistently continues to read The Book of Zohar over and over again, then this confusion, fog and uncertainty disappears because the Light influences a person. “Whatever the mind doesn’t do, time does,” and The Zohar is especially powerful in this regard. We must only give it the chance to freely flow through us.

As I read a paragraph from The Book of Zohar, I don’t even want to remember anything that happened to me in the past. I have gone through it and it’s over. While I read The Zohar, I want to experience it fully; I want to completely absorb it so it will permeate all my cells. These are my expectations.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent),” Item 274
For the first time in history we are doing spiritual work together and are launching the process of the general correction.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 100, Lesson 40
Bina awakens only in response to a demand from the lower one. Nothing will happen unless we awaken Bina.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 22, Lesson 7
The worlds conceal the state of Infinity from us. But they also become the steps by which we ascend to Infinity.
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You know you are studying The Zohar correctly when you keep reading it over and over, yet you don’t understanding anything. You shouldn’t be afraid of this or try to lie to yourself. On the contrary, you must accept the fact that it’s unknown like a baby, and then it will indeed begin gaining clarity.

Studying The Zohar brings a Déjà vu sensation, where something you have ready before suddenly surfaces in your memory while reading a different part of the text. When you read it the first time, you didn’t understand a thing, but now it suddenly all comes together, similar to how something in our world becomes revealed to a baby.

If it seems that the material is clear to you, then this is a grave error on your part that hinders your progress. You must clearly realize that you are reading about phenomena that presently do not exist inside you.

If your soul becomes corrected, then you will perceive them properly. But for now you are merely hearing the words without knowing what they really mean. For example, you read the word “darkness” and think that you understand its meaning, but actually it means something else entirely; it refers to the inability to perceive something. After all, the book talks about bestowal, whereas you only know how to receive.

Your opposition to the Light, to this exalted state of bestowal, is called darkness. Similarly, your likeness to the Light and ability to connect to a more advanced desire is called Light. In this regard, it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand and cannot imagine these notions. What is important is your desire. This is what draws the Light – the force that develops you.

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