There Are 4 Parameters of Reality
The entire creation can be described as a function of four parameters: time, soul, world, and Source of existence. These are regulated from the inside by the Will and the Wishes of the Creator.
Time: a cause-and-effect progression of events that takes place with every single soul and with all humanity in its entirety, similar to the historical development of humanity.
Soul: everything organic (live), including human beings.
World: the entire inorganic (lifeless) universe. In the spiritual worlds, this corresponds to the inorganic level of desires .
Source of Existence: the plan for the development of events. This occurs with each of us and with humanity in general, and is the plan for governing the entire creation and bringing it to the initially predetermined condition.
The 4 Layers of the Creator’s Concealment from You
When He decided to create all the worlds and the human beings in them to bring them closer to Him, the Creator gradually decreased his presence by diminishing His Light in order to create our world. The four phases of gradual (from above downwards) concealment of the Creator’s Presence are known as “the worlds.” These are:
Atzilut: a world in which those present are completely unified with the Creator.
Beria: a world in which those present have a connection with the Creator.
Yetzira: a world in which those present perceive the Creator.
Assiya: a world in which those present almost completely or completely do not perceive the Creator. This level includes our world as the last, the lowest and the most removed from the Creator.
All the above worlds have emerged one from the other and, in a way, are replicas of one another.
Interestingly, each world is a replica in all four parameters: world, soul, time, and Source of existence. Thus, everything in our world is the direct result of processes that have already taken place in the past in a higher world, and all that has taken place there is the result of what took place even earlier, and so on, up to the point where all four parameters—world, time, soul, and the Source of existence—merge in a single Source of existence, in the Creator!
Spiritual Development Determines Your Perception
To study and to live according to the Torah, or to study and to live according to Kabbalah, is determined by the spiritual level of the student. If one is on the level of this world, then one sees and perceives this world and the Torah as everything.
However, should the student move to a higher level, a different picture will emerge. The sheath of this world will vanish and what will be left are the sheaths of the worlds, Yetzira and Beria. Then the Torah and all reality will appear different, as it does to those who reach the level of the world, Yetzira.
At that point, the Bible, with all its stories about animals, wars and the objects of this world, will be transformed into Kabbalah—the description of the world, Yetzira.
If the person elevates himself even further into the world of Beria or Atzilut, then an entirely new picture of the world and of the mechanism that governs it will appear, in accordance with one’s spiritual state.
There is no difference between the events of the Bible and Kabbalah, the Bible of the spiritual world. The difference is in the spiritual level of those who are involved. In fact, if two people were reading the same book, one would see in it historical events, and the other, the depiction of the dominion over the worlds, which is clearly perceived from the Creator.
From Suffering to Unbounded Love
Those from whom the Creator is in complete concealment exist in the world of Assiya. That is why, in the end, all appears to them as not good: the world appears as full of suffering, since they cannot perceive it otherwise due to the concealment of the Creator.
If they do, in fact, experience pleasure, it appears merely as pleasure that follows suffering. It is only when one attains the level of Yetzira that the Creator partially reveals Himself and allows a person to see His governing by reward and punishment; thus is born love (dependent on the reward) and fear (dependent on punishment) in that person.
The third step—unconditional love—appears when one realizes that the Creator has never caused one harm, but only good. This corresponds to the level of Beria. When the Creator reveals the entire picture of creation and His Dominion over all the creations, then there arises in one an absolute love for the Creator, since His absolute love towards all His creations is now visible.
This understanding elevates one to the level of the world, Atzilut. Therefore, our ability to understand His actions depends only on the degree to which the Creator will reveal Himself to us, since we are created in such a way that the conduct of the Creator affects us (our thoughts, our qualities, our acts) automatically. Thus, we can only ask that He alter us.
“Your Entrance into the Spiritual Worlds” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.
