Laitman.com » Perception

Crossing The Machsom

admin_bb — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:49:13 +0000

Question: What does “crossing the Machsom” mean?

Answer: To cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality) means to feel the reality within. The “point in the heart” emerges and gains the minimum “volume” (10 Sefirot). In these Sefirot, I begin to perceive and feel a new reality. I feel how the Light enters and exits me and causes various sensations. It starts with minimal changes in perception and understanding, but I’m able to see what’s occurring “within.” With regard to our world, I begin to see it on the background of the new (spiritual) world.

Such duality of existence is not an obstacle. On the contrary, it allows me to feel and understand the relationship between the two worlds, the branch and the root. Within my point in the heart, I sense various actions no matter how small. I still don’t understand what it means when the Light enters and exits, but I feel that something comes and goes repeatedly. I don’t yet comprehend exactly what is happening just like a newborn who feels but doesn’t know what is going on.

Suppose a light turns on and off. A newborn doesn’t know that it is called light and dark, but he observes some phenomenon. To me, as the Light enters and exits, it gives a sensation of the Upper reality (as the Light enters) and our world as its mere imprint (as the Light exits). Further on, I begin to orient myself in it better and better to the degree of my ability to develop similar properties.

From Mega Congress Lesson 5, 7/25/10

Step Out Into The Universe!

admin_bb — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:11:35 +0000

We experience the world within our desire to receive pleasure. Everything we are able to perceive through our five sensory organs, such as sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, results in the picture we observe from within. This is the reality we perceive.

Is there a way out of this limited perception into a broader one, which is not restricted by the physical body and its five sensory organs? After all, our vision of the world and our self is dictated by our animate body. It all depends on perception. Perhaps, there are countless forms beyond the body, but our body filters them allowing us to feel only what it is able to process. It means that we will never be able to experience the ultimate reality. If this is the case, then maybe we will see it is the true reality after the body dies? Yet, how is this possible if our five sensory organs die with it?

Kabbalists tell us that we are unable to perceive the entire reality because it is experienced “within myself” and thereby limited to only partial perception called “this world.” However, we can shift into the “outer” perception, the one outside the body. There is a force that changes our range of perception, where it is possible to experience reality outside of myself. In other words, instead of focusing on myself, I focus on the others and put them above myself.

When we are reading about the outer reality, it influences us in such way that we gradually begin perceiving it. It is called, “labored and found.” We must exert effort in order to obtain this new perception. After a few months of such laboring we start noticing changes occurring within us, and how different our perception of others becomes.

The most effective way to advance in this process is through a group reading The Zohar, regardless of how well we understand it. What counts is our desire to be affected by it, which will gradually help us start experiencing the outer reality.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/10, The Zohar

And I Will See Myself Everywhere

admin_bb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:44:17 +0000

Question: Is it true that every time we read The Book of Zohar it precisely describes my spiritual state?

Answer: The spiritual states include everything just like a holographic image. Indeed, every spiritual state comprises the ten Sefirot. And whichever way you look at it, in every state you see yourself.

How is this possible? It is because all this is a single, universal state; it is only that we discern in it a gradation of qualities. There are not multiple states, but only one state: the first and the last state of adhesion. However, for us it is revealed in different perspectives, as though we are looking at the same picture from different visual angles. Therefore, I can see and recognize myself in every state that there is.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/10, The Zohar

A Step Into Infinity

admin_bb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:33:32 +0000

Question: What are the signs that we have made the first step onto the spiritual ladder?

Answer: When we arrive at the first spiritual degree, we feel a pressing need to unite because a common integrated system of souls becomes revealed to us there. This system is a tight network of forces of mutual love and bestowal, filled with the upper, unifying force, the Creator.

The more willing we are to become equivalent to the Light, the tighter our souls draw together under its effect, and we feel how it passes through us. The souls align with the Light more and more, removing obstacles (resistance) out of its way, and the Light travels through them without restriction, shifting from one soul to the other. The Light becomes whole and complete like in the World of Infinity. It doesn’t need to perform any actions or movements in order to shift from place to place; it simply and absolutely fills the entirety of the network evenly.

This network exists at every level of the spiritual ladder, from the first to the last. However, as we advance to a higher spiritual degree, we perceive a more integrated network filled with more Light. We perceive this because there is less and less difference between the souls and the Light in which they reside. This means that the Creator, who fills space between the souls, is revealed to them more and more.

We see the Light at the very first degree of the spiritual ladder, similar to how a newborn baby begins to perceive our world with his five corporeal senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. A newborn doesn’t know how to use his sensory organs yet, but is able to acclimate himself somewhat.

The same occurs when we attain the first spiritual degree. After having made it to the first spiritual degree, we exist in this world in our physical body and also within our soul in the spiritual world. The spiritual world is eternal, and while in it, we don’t feel the need for the physical body. We can exist without it, solely in the sensation of the Upper World.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

All The Treasures Are In Front Of You!

bb_admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:51:02 +0000

A question I received: I study The Zohar every day, but I don’t feel anything besides my growing desire. Am I advancing in the right direction?

My Answer: This is very good! If your desire is growing from one day to the next, then you don’t need anything else! Even though a growing desire brings you disappointment, you have to see it as a reward. This is because desire or lack of fulfillment is the force that moves you forward. When you have an empty desire, you feel that you lack unity with the Creator, the feeling of connection with Him, the quality of bestowal.

Therefore, the right desire is a reward. In our world you have to earn fulfillment, but in the spiritual world you have to earn a spiritual vessel, a desire. The fulfillment is always there, you are welcome to come and take it! But what will you take it into? That is the question.

Right now there are spiritual treasures all around you: “diamonds,” “gold,” “money,” and anything else you can possibly wish for. You just do not have a desire for them, which is why you don’t recognize them. The space around you seems empty! All the best things you can possibly wish for are already present, but it is as if you have been gagged and your arms and legs have been tied, and then you are placed in front of this treasure and told, “It’s yours!” But, how is it yours if you can’t take it?

It is necessary to develop or prepare the desire, the spiritual vessel. That is all we have to do. Therefore, our reward is desire or aspiration, and it has to be created by the Light. We have to change our perception, our attitude to reward and punishment. In our world punishment is desire or the sensation of lack, whereas reward is the fulfillment that calms you down because you live inside the will to enjoy.

However, if you are inside the will to bestow and you have the desire to bestow, this is a reward. Why is the difference so great? It is a result of the restriction. The restriction was performed on reception, but there are no restrictions on bestowal.

If you already have the desire to bestow, then everything lies open before you and everything becomes revealed to you to the same degree. Inside your desire to bestow, you begin to see in the Reflected Light everything that is around you, and you are welcome to take it!

That is how gradually, from one day to the next, The Zohar changes our vision and the direction of our thinking, by building a new, different attitude to life and to the phases of spiritual advancement.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/10, The Zohar

To See The Upper Light

admin.bb — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:53:04 +0000

A question I received: What is the Light that Reforms? What does it feel like? Is it something pleasant that illuminates our path?

My answer: This Light is a force that begins reforming me. I suddenly realize that I see the world in a “different light.” What changes is my outlook on things and my attitude to people. I become more tolerant, understanding, and agreeable with them. I become more compassionate and accepting of people the way they are. I feel that we are all tied together.

I feel closer to them and more forgiving, as if they are my children. I see them as parts of myself. I am not quite aware why and how it is happening, but I begin to forgive everybody. What I previously hated and was appalled by doesn’t seem that bad any more. I easily compromise, as if I am in a close relationship with people.

This is how the Light works on us. We don’t “see” it because it doesn’t illuminate what is in front of us as a flashlight would. This Light impacts us from within. We draw it to work in us and to reform our properties.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

The Whole World Is Inside The Reshimo

admin_bb — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:39:58 +0000

We feel reality if two forces come from Above and act upon something common between them. If they can activate a Reshimo (informational record) to reveal it within us, then they enter it. The Reshimo forms a picture of the world, my state, and then I feel it.

On the other hand, if these two forces are unable to reach the Reshimo in order to activate it and they do not bring it into play, I do not feel the reality. It simply does not exist for me. My whole existence, the whole picture of the world, every state in which I feel myself and the world that surrounds me, is a Reshimo that is activated due to these two forces: the right and the left, reception and bestowal. Like a robot, I feel the realization of the Reshimo within me.

If these forces activate a Reshimo on their own, it means that I have no freedom of will and I exist in this world while being controlled like an animal. All of our reincarnations, our whole history, and our entire development in this world occur in this manner. These two forces constantly affect the Reshimot (plural of Reshimo), showing us this movie of life, scene after scene.

However, life gradually becomes more difficult for me. I’m expected to activate the Reshimo on my own with the help of the two forces; I’m expected to become the middle line, adding my attitude to the influence of the two forces on the Reshimo.

Then, how I see my state and the whole world depends on me. And the only change I wish to see in the world is the presence of the Creator, the force of bestowal and love. In this manner, I realize the Reshimo. This time, it is through my own participation and with the revelation of the Creator, which occurs to the extent that I desire to draw Him into my world.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, The Zohar

The Breaking Is Part Of Correction!

bb_admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:16:11 +0000

I received a letter from someone who is complaining that he doesn’t understand anything in the lesson on the Talmud Eser Sefirot. He is outraged at the fact that we suddenly “skipped over” to the middle of the text, to Part 7 in order to study about the breaking of the Kelim (which is a custom Kabbalists observe before the 9^th of Av, the day the Temple was destroyed), instead of talking about correction. And generally speaking, he heard that the Talmud Eser Sefirot is intended for people who already have spiritual attainment and that Kabbalists wrote these texts only for each other.

And indeed, Baal HaSulam does say in Item 154 of Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot that Kabbalists write these texts for those who already have spiritual attainment and who understand what the text talks about. Otherwise you will not understand a word of it. If you do not feel the text inside you and experience it as actions taking place within, you won’t understand a word.

It is only possible to understand it with the heart, the desire in which all of this takes place. But if a person still doesn’t have the desire that is able to perform actions of bestowal, then obviously he does not understand a word of what is written.

Nevertheless, Baal HaSulam created Talmud Eser Sefirot in order for it to work as a remedy, on the condition that we desire to attain the state where we will feel it within us, when “man’s soul will teach him.” It is impossible to study the spiritual world theoretically, with your mind. Kabbalists can only advise us on how to ascend to it. When the student does, he reveals the Upper World for himself, and his soul teaches him. Only when a person attains this level does he begin to feel and understand what is being discussed!

It is impossible to study without feeling because man lives by feeling inside desire. We have to study what happens inside our desire in order to feel it inside. Then we will read the book and it will explain to us what we are feeling. It will also teach us how to discern a multitude of shades of feeling inside us.

The science of Kabbalah is the science of knowing yourself. Therefore, it is natural that at first a person does not understand anything. You have to try to attain the sensation! We do not study in order to memorize the text by heart or to understand it theoretically. Our only goal is to attract the Light that Reforms.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

The World Is Built By Our Prayers

bb_admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:03:24 +0000

People think that prayer relates to religion and religious people, and that it is removed from regular, secular people. But that is not true! All of our external garments, physical bodies, and objects surrounding us in this world are expressions of desire. There is nothing but desire, which creates all these clothings for itself.

Therefore, without being aware of it, we determine our entire lives with our desires, including what state we will enter in the next moment and how we will experience this reality! Whether we want it or not, we are all always praying, or asking for some kind of fulfillment for our desire. We do it completely unconsciously. I don’t have to pray for someone or something intentionally. Desire comprises our entire inner essence, and my sensation that I lack something is called prayer.

We want something at every moment. That is how we influence reality, which contains nothing but desire and the force of desire. This means that at every moment I want something and I pray for it. Our desires connect with one another and control the entire universe, continually producing new pictures and new states for us.

We build this world with our prayers! Therefore, the only thing we need is to change our requests, despite the desire of our heart. Then we will reveal a new world because the whole world is the sensation inside my desire.

The science of Kabbalah is named after the word “Kabbalah,” reception, because it talks about what you will receive the next moment. Only you determine what the next moment will be, what you will receive and feel in it. Will you be able to change your vision of the world, directing your desire in the necessary direction (which is called prayer)? If you change your prayer so that instead of desiring what you desire now, you desire the right thing, then you will change the entire picture of the world and all of reality.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, “The Importance of the Prayer of the Many”

The Magic Powder

admin_bb — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:29:18 +0000

A fable from Baal HaSulam’s Igrot (Letters), Letter 26, pg. 85: A great good King had one purpose: to give pleasure to the citizens of his kingdom. He gave them an order to do work for him for a year and designated a special place for it in his palace. The reward was set up at the place of work where the King prepared meals with an abundance of various delicacies.

They all started to work and thought that the King would put guards over them to watch their work, but the King hid himself, and they could do as they pleased. They were not aware of the King’s invention, a seasoning, the healing powder that gave all the dishes filled with delicacies and sweets a bitter unpleasant taste. But in the place where people did work, this seasoning made the food taste divine!

Those who where loyal to the King, did the work as they were told and carried out the orders precisely, even without being watched. Thus, the healing dust filled their bodies. When the time of feast came, the workers were able to taste countless flavors and the sweetness they had never known before. So they constantly praised and thanked the King.

But those low workers who didn’t recognize the greatness of the King and that they should love him faithfully (because no guards were watching over them), disregarded the place of work and chose to work where it was more pleasant. So when the time of feast came, the food tasted horribly bitter because of the magic dust. They started to curse and berate the King and his feast because he prepared such a bad reward for their exertion. And for them, the King became a great liar for he gave them bitterness and salt instead of delicacies and sweets.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 26, pg. 85