Spiritual Names Vs. Corporeal Names

The Kabbalistic names, though they were taken from our world, signify completely different objects and actions in the spiritual world, unrelated to those of this world. It is true that the spiritual objects are the immediate sources of the objects found in this world.

From this incongruence, and the dissimilarity of the spiritual cause and the effect found in our world, it can once again be seen how remote the spiritual objects are from our egoistic concepts. In the spiritual world, a name signifies a particular disclosure of the Creator’s light to a person through an action, which is assigned that particular name.

Similarly, in our world, every word discloses something not of the object itself, but of our perception of that object. The phenomenon or the object itself is completely outside the realm of our perception. It is an entity in itself, absolutely incomprehensible to us.

How Our Perception of Objects Is Formed

Undoubtedly, the object possesses forms and qualities absolutely different from those that can be detected by our instruments or senses. One can confirm this concept with the example of seeing an object through one’s vision vs. seeing one obtained through x-rays or heat frequencies.

In any case, an object and the perception of that object exist separately.

The latter arises out of the qualities of the person perceiving the object in question. Thus, the combination of the object (that is, of the true qualities of the object) and of the qualities of the one who perceives the object (the perceiver), give rise to a third entity: a depiction of the object formed by the perceiver. This is based both on the general qualities of the object itself, and on the qualities of the perceiver.

Changing Spiritual States: The Interaction Between Light and Vessel

In the process of working with the spiritual Light, there are two distinct states of a person who wishes to receive and receives the Light: the perception and the qualities of a person prior to receiving the Light, and after receiving it.

There are also two states of the Light that fill the vessels- desires of a person: the state of the Light prior to coming in contact with the feelings and desires of the person, and the state of the Light after it has come into contact with the perceiver.

In a prior state, the Light is known as Simple Light, because it bears no connection to the qualities of the perceiver. Since all the objects, other than the Light of the Creator, desire to receive and to be gratified by the Light, there is no actual possibility to perceive, to examine, to sense, or even to imagine the Light outside of ourselves.

Kabbalists Name the Creator According to Their Attainment of Him

Thus, if we refer to the Creator as the Strong One, it is because at that moment we feel (one who truly feels!) His strength. But not having perceived any quality of the Creator, it is impossible to refer to Him by any name, because even the word “Creator” connotes the fact that a person perceived this particular quality of the Light.

However, if a person pronounces the names of the Creator (that is, enumerates His qualities), without having perceived these qualities through the senses, then this act implies that a person assigns names to the simple Light prior to sensing the meaning of these names in oneself, which is equal to lying, since a simple Light has no name.

“Our Subjective Perception of Reality and What Lies Beyond” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.