A question I received: What is the science of Kabbalah’s approach to the perception of reality?

My Answer: The approach is very simple. A human being is a desire. This desire imagines itself from within – who am I, what am I, what do I consist of, how do I exist, as well as what and how do I feel? In addition, it imagines that it supposedly exists outside of this desire, as though there is another form of desire somehow depicted as outside of itself.

There is a great gap between the desire which seems to belong to me (in which I imagine myself), and the desire in which I perceive everything that surrounds me. The desire in which I imagine my external environment is disconnected from my internal “I.”

This external desire feels foreign in regard to my inner desire; however, I analyze it only to the extent that the inner desire can benefit from it, meaning, receive pleasure from it in my inner desire. Therefore, I can kill this external desire; I can rid it of all life and Light because I don’t care what happens to it. The most important thing for me is to gain in my inner desire. I use the external desire only to benefit my inner desire.

Why do we perceive the world and ourselves this way? Baal HaSulam explains that there is only one desire, but it has two inner, inherent differences – the separation into the internal and the external. Through this breaking, the Creator enabled us to feel the difference between Him and ourselves – to feel how opposite we are to each other and how distant He is from us. However, instead of feeling Him, we are imagining the world that surrounds us now.

So how else can He instill Himself, the quality of bestowal, into us, the quality of reception? He does so by giving us an example of what these two forms of nature represent, what it means to receive and to bestow.

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The Creator purposefully divided our perception into external and internal in order to give us the ability to recognize the opposition between reception and bestowal. If we felt everything only inside ourselves, we would not be able to understand it. We would be going around in circles like a dog chasing its own tail, while staying in the same place.

For example, each of us has numerous negative qualities that we may dislike, such as a weakness for lying, dominating over others, arrogance, and theft once in a while. I may hate all of these qualities, but they are all mine. Therefore, I acquit myself. But if I see someone else doing the same thing, then I am ready to kill him. If I always perceived everything inside of me, then I wouldn’t be able to get out of myself or my ego, and shift to the side of bestowal.

“Every person judges others to the extent of his own deficiencies.” This means that by perceiving these qualities as external to me, I see their true form. If they were in me, I wouldn’t relate to them objectively, since they are mine. For example, see if you can convince a mother that her child is not intelligent or beautiful. You can’t; she will always think that he is the most beautiful, intelligent and kind child in the world.

But since I relate to the external qualities as foreign, I view them with animosity and hatred, and therefore I am able to see these qualities (which are actually my own) in their true form. I am able to look at them without prejudice; I can criticize them wisely and correctly, and my ego helps me with this analysis, like a strict judge that pays attention to the minute details, revealing the true corrupted qualities.

However, later on I reveal that all of this was mine; it exists inside me, but because of my extreme hate for all other people, I see everything to the extent of my own corruption. Yet, others are not guilty of anything! It only seemed to me that one person was a thief, another was a liar, and I was right to hate all of them. Now, however, I see that my egoistic desire was really at fault. Yet, the external vision had opened my eyes and allowed me to recognize the deficiencies, in order to then learn that they are inside of me.

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Each soul is connected to the World of Infinity by a chain or a ladder of spiritual rungs that gradually weakens the Lights and Kelim. I awaken this system the moment I establish a connection with Infinity. Actually, this whole system is inside me; it only seems external to me.

There are two entities in the universe: man and the Creator. Man has to feel that he exists outside of the Creator in order to understand the meaning of “being separated from the Creator.” He has to learn what opposition to Him is and what it is to be close or far from Him in order to then be able to experience adhesion with Him.

This is why I was deliberately created with a perception of reality that is divided into what is inside and outside of me. This makes it easier for me to understand what the Creator is and what I am, what the breaking and the adhesion are, what a state of unconsciousness (concealment) is as opposed to the state of being close to Him and merging with Him into one whole.

The Creator tosses outside everything that I feel inside me, and as a result, my perception is divided into two parts: internal (which is everything I receive), and external (everything that I give, but without the correct intention).

The external world is my Kelim that are purposefully portrayed to me as foreign in order for me to understand what bestowal means. If I begin to relate to them as to parts of me, then I will understand how far I am from bestowal, and how opposite and undesirable it is for me. I will then see that loving my neighbor as myself is not that simple; in fact, I cannot do it. And that means I cannot bestow or come close to the Creator.

“But hold on,” you are thinking, “I want to be close to the Creator!” Well, if you want it, then you need to show it, and bestowal is the only way to do that.

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A question I received: When I look in the mirror, I see my own image and it’s clear that I can’t communicate or work with it. But when we look at our reality, we essentially see ourselves, or images of our desire.

My Answer: This is why Baal HaSulam says that a person’s desire is divided into two parts – the part that is perceived within, and the other part that seems to be outside. In one part, a person perceives himself, and in the other he perceives the world. This false, opposite form of perception was created on purpose, so we would transfer the part that is outside into our “inner” perception.

The fact is that everything on the outside, as well as myself, is actually perceived inside of me. There is nothing besides one, single desire, one world.

We are not supposed to correct our corporeal reality or the sensation of this division into “myself” and “this world,” which is reality on its lowest level. Rather, we have to unite both parts of the desire by ascending up the steps of the spiritual ladder. The reality we are in now is the last, lowest level of reality, and it does not change when we ascend spiritually. It will change and disappear only at the End of Correction, when this world will enter the general correction, the unified sensation inside a unified desire – the World of Infinity.

Until then, the picture of our world does not change. The Light does influence it; however, it influences Malchut, the desire, in order to unite both of its parts – the inner and the outer, into one. The Light influences all the other desires as well – our spiritual desires, where we have freedom of will. These are the desires we work with and have to correct. But in our world there is nothing to correct. We only have to correct the connection between the souls. That is where our desire unites into one, and in it, we reveal the Creator.

The layer of desire, where I perceive myself and the world around me, remains until the End of Correction. Even the greatest Kabbalist who ascends to the last, 125^th level and attains the general Final Correction will still perceive this world the same way as you. He will have to go to a doctor to heal his body, and he will have to use this entire world and to see reality as divided into inner and outer. Even though he knows that in reality this is not so, nevertheless, he will still see reality this way through his corporeal senses because this level of reality does not change until the very End of Correction.

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The world we perceive was not given to us by accident. It follows from nature, which includes two opposite forms: the Creator and the creation. When we begin to ascend, we are given this world in order to help us become similar to the Creator and eliminate the difference between the point of creation, “existence from nothingness” and the Creator, or the difference between the Kli and the Light. This world is a state perceived by the point of creation, which is separated from the Creator and opposite to Him.

In order to lead us to “the other side of the screen,” to take us from one picture to another, we were given a means called The Book of Zohar. It is a means that takes us from a state of disunity to a state of unity. This is why we are given the state we now perceive and the state we have to reach, as well as all the levels and stages that we have to go through on this path, and the means – The Book of Zohar, which tells us about the connection between the two worlds, about how one world clothes into the other. None of these things are accidental.

We have to make efforts in order to use this means, The Book of Zohar, to change ourselves. The more this book will become revealed to us, the more it will change us. Thus, we will continuously move forward, advancing from our current sensation of a black point that reveals its own nature and attains its opposition to the Light.

All of reality exists inside this point of creation, or rather, reality exists relative to this point’s perception. This point contains all the worlds and all the changes; everything is inside it. In addition, this point does not change in relation to the Creator that created it; in relation to Him it is always in the corrected, best possible state. It is the only existing point of creation, which He created from nothing (Yesh Mi Ein).

When we read The Zohar, we have to realize that we are not looking at a book, but a special mechanism that bridges our two states – the current state where we are separated from the Creator, can only feel ourselves, and are locked in a black point, and the future, higher state where we are united with Him. Using a special language or program, The Zohar shows us what actions and inner changes we can make in order to restructure ourselves within and be able to receive the Light that is outside of us for now.

Then our inner structure will be similar to the Light, the Creator. At the same time, we will always remain comprised of the matter called “the will to receive,” or “existence from nothingness.”

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We have lived through thousands of lives, and now we are situated in a special reincarnation where we are beginning real spiritual work for the first time. For the first time we are no longer acting like the inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels of nature, but are performing personal, individual work that only a human being could, according to his own free choice. This is the first time that this is happening in all of creation, in all the generations, after all the states and past lives that we have gone through.

This period is not easy by any means. We still don’t understand what it means to begin living in a new world, to adjoin the whole world to ourselves, to enter a different dimension, and to develop a new desire (Kli). We think that something needs to happen right now, in our old egoistic state. However, a new reality has to come and clothe into us; it is a reality that we do not expect, know, or take it into account. And the only way this can happen is gradually, with our consent, and the consent must also be reached gradually.

At the same time, we have to expect the revelation to happen any minute now. But on the other hand, we should understand that even in our world, where we don’t experience such great changes, it takes many years and much effort to change anything, and here we are talking about something much bigger – changes that have to be performed in us by the Upper Light. We are, indeed, about to enter a new dimension!

The Light is always ready to perform the corrections to us. However, we have to provide this opportunity for it, and that is where we usually stumble.

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A question I received: If hell is the revelation of my own evil, which rules over me and separates me from the Creator, and this is felt like a consuming fire, then what is heaven?

My Answer: Heaven is the feeling of fulfilling another person. This is the state of the Creator, the force of bestowal and love that rules over all of nature. If this force reveals your opposition to it, then you feel hell, and if this force is expressed directly, then you experience a sensation called heaven.

Every state we go through includes all the possible states because everything consists of ten Sefirot. Therefore, heaven and hell, as well as all five worlds, include all the states. Otherwise it would be impossible to perceive them. A baby, for example, consists of all the same parts as an adult, even though he has no need for his legs yet.

Right now I perceive the world within my five senses: smell, taste, touch, vision and hearing. All information enters me through these senses and is united in my subconscious, which creates the picture of the world that I see. As a result, I perceive myself – a sensation that comes mostly from the sense of touch, which causes me to feel external and internal pressure on my body. Besides this, I experience myself and the world around me through hearing, vision, taste and smell. To the degree that my desires increase or wind down, I experience myself in different states.

When my desires become more revealed, I begin to feel the influence of the surrounding world. But in reality, the external world does not exist; it is my own desires that are divided into internal and external ones. More specifically, they are divided into five levels: Shoresh, Neshama, Guf, Levush, and Heichal (root, soul, body, clothing, and castles). Alternatively, they can be called Keter, Hochma, and Bina (which are my inner desires), and Zeir Anpin and Malchut (these are the external desires).

In my inner desires (root, soul, and body) I feel myself. The desires called clothing and castles are also my desires, but ones that I am unable to bring closer to me and to absorb; I cannot attach them to myself so firmly that they will be inside me. This is why it seems to me that the entire world exists around me. “Clothing” refers not just to clothing, but to anything that is outside of me yet close to me, whereas “castles” refers to the entire rest of the world, which is more distant from me.

However, this entire division exists only in my perception. If I correct my desires so they all unite inside me, bound by one screen (one anti-egoistic action), then I will find that the entire universe is inside of me. I will no longer feel as if there is something taking place or existing outside of me.

The sensation that I live in an enormous, spacious and multi-faceted world comes from the fact that my desires are uncorrected. After all, I live inside my desire, since it was the only thing created by the Creator.

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It seems illogical to us, but if we wish to rise to the next degree and receive more Light, we have to “come out of the house,” from the state where we had fulfillment – the Light of Hochma, and rise to a degree where there is only the Light of Hassadim. That way we guarantee that we will not fall from our spiritual degree and nothing will be able to harm us.

After all, the only thing that can harm us is us! A human being is a small world. Everything we see around us exists inside of us, in our sensations. This whole world, which seems external, actually exists inside us. We just imagine it to be outside.

When we begin to obtain spiritual sensations, we will feel that all of these qualities and phenomena occur within us. Right now, however, it seems obvious to us that everything exists outside, including the inanimate and vegetative levels of nature, animals, people, all the stars, the whole universe. Besides, how could all of this fit inside a person? However, later we will feel all of this inside of us.

It is a great delusion to think that the world is external. Regular science is also beginning to reach this conclusion, although The Zohar wrote about this more than a thousand years ago. All the characters and objects described in The Zohar exist only in our perception, including the Creator and the created being, Leah, Rachel, Yaakov, Israel, angels, evil spirits, various forces, ourselves, and all the worlds. All of this is inside us. Therefore, when we read The Zohar, we have to try to feel how it is happening inside us.

There is nothing outside of us. There are no friends with whom we study, and there is no television displaying the lesson for us. All of this is just our perception.

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The perception of reality that Kabbalah explains to us seems very strange and extraordinary to us. However, a newborn baby also finds the world he sees around him very extraordinary. He is not used to anything taking place and begins to study this world from the very beginning. We are exactly the same in regard to the spiritual world.

In addition, we have Reshimot (informational genes), inner definitions of the spiritual world, and therefore, it is as though we are returning to a place we were in previously, the place from which we came.

When we are born, we enter a different world each time because the world develops; it undergoes technological progress and life around us changes. However, when we enter the spiritual world, we find ourselves in a world that we were in previously, and therefore, we have memories, information, feelings, and impressions about it. We simply have to awaken them.

Through its stories and explanations, The Zohar draws us upward, leading us into the feelings of the spiritual world. Although we aren’t there yet, by reading The Zohar we begin to awaken our inner memories about the path that we went through from above downward, when we went through all these stages before.

Now we are returning there from our world. We are beginning to ascend back where we came from.

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I am a small word, and I perceive everything within myself. As Baal HaSulam explains in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” there is a “camera” within me that projects the picture of this world on a screen in the back of my head. Thus, the world is presented to me through the following system of coordinates: “world, year, soul.” Therefore, in order to see the true picture of the world, I have to properly arrange my desires, through which I perceive the world.

By correcting every one of my desires from reception to bestowal, I gradually begin to convert the pictures of this world, presently perceived in the light of reception, to a picture of the world in the light of bestowal. Then, step by step, I will draw closer to the true picture of reality – one that is outside of me and independent of my corrupted vessels of reception (Kelim). I will see reality in its true form, outside of me; stated differently, I will “see” the spiritual world.

All I have to do to accomplish this is to change the method of utilizing my desires from reception to bestowal. Therefore, I must first and foremost imagine that the whole world that I presently feel and seem to dwell in is actually my desires; it is in these desires that I dwell, which are all aimed at consumption (reception).

As I gradually begin to convert them from reception to bestowal, to exit out of them to the outside, the picture of the world will change. This is very difficult for me to understand because I am accustomed to perceiving the world as it appears to me at this moment. However, the whole picture of the world is created by forces descending from Above, like a picture on a computer screen. I can change my desires, and then I’ll perceive a different reality.

We are living in a special time, when all the forces, all the conditions, and all the states that we go through help us to discard our current perception of the world, a perception of the corporeal reality, and develop the desire to acquire a different perception of reality – that of the spiritual world.

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