Why Kabbalah Is Necessary to Continue to Research Reality

Our perception of ourselves and reality determines how we sense ourselves and reality. This is the basis for all our research. We need to understand what a human being is, and if we have any existence in and of ourselves. Quantum physicists may be right when they argue that man, like all of matter, is merely a “bundle of waves.” Perhaps the actual reality is very different from that which we presently see. However, if we can establish a fundamental, objective principle that will not depend upon our subjective sensation, a principle that defines “us” and defines “reality,” we will have a standard by which to assess our present perception.

Many researchers believe that the more we progress in our research, the dimmer and vaguer we find things to be. They feel that we are groping in the dark. Our misunderstanding of ourselves and the world is at the core of the present global crisis we are facing. Without doubt, the scientific approach of researching the depths of reality is a good one, but we find there is a boundary, an impasse that we cannot penetrate.

Human nature, human perception, and everything science has discovered will not facilitate a forward movement. We will feel that from a certain point on, everything becomes “intangible” and “evaporates.” This is what quantum physics is already beginning to discover–that matter is suddenly “lost,” leaving researchers in a kind of vacuum.

A sensation of that sort stems from having lost the sense of the present reality, before having perceived the “approaching” Upper reality. This happens when one does not possess the tools to perceive that “other” reality. Baal HaSulam states (in his article, The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah) that the only way to obtain that method is to learn from a Kabbalist who has already mastered it.

Do You Know that You Exist in a State of Perfection?

Our state in this world is far from our real state, from the standard called Ein Sof, where we are all connected as one desire filled with the Upper Light. The separation, or “exclusion,” occurred to allow us to rise from the degree of desire to a higher degree than that of the desire itself, meaning the degree of intention. This enabled us to make free choices and acquire discernments and revelations with which we could transcend the creature-receiving degree and reach the Creator-giving degree.

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A Crash Course in How You Perceive Reality

We might compare a human being to a closed box with sensors: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands, representing the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

As we have previously said, the fundamental principle in perceiving reality is that of “equivalence of Form,” which means equilibrium of pressures. The senses function as sensors, each with a different reaction to the pressure, depending on the make up of the sensor. The sight sensor evokes a reaction of light, darkness, and colors; the sound sensor evokes sounds; the smell sensor evokes scents; the taste, flavors; and the touch, sensations such as hard, soft, warm, and cold.

The reaction of the senses is transferred to the brain’s control center, where the information is compared with the data that already exists in the memory, the reservoir of prior impressions. In this manner, we process what our senses gather, determine the most advantageous reaction, and study where we are and how best to function in our environment. When the process is completed, the information is “projected” unto a “screen” within the brain, portraying what is ostensibly in front of us (see diagram).

Why What You Perceive Outside of You Is Really Inside of You

In this process, the surrounding unknown becomes “known,” and a picture of the external reality is created. However, the picture is not one of external reality, but merely an internal picture, a result of the structure of human senses and preexisting data. If we had different senses, we would produce an entirely different picture. Quite possibly, if we perceived through different senses, what appears as light would appear as dark, or even as something so fundamentally different that we cannot imagine how it would appear to us.

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How Changing One’s Intention Expands Perception

The only difference between the vessels that perceive the corporeal reality and those that perceive the spiritual reality is in the intention. The corporeal vessels are egoistic and the spiritual vessels are altruistic. Intention is related to one’s attitude towards the use one makes of one’s desires.

The only state that really exists is the state of Ein Sof (Infinity). In that state, the Light is present within the Kli. However, that state is concealed, and the concealment prevents us from experiencing the state of Ein Sof. The altruistic intention gradually removes this concealment and exposes the Light that permanently fills the Kli.

If we keep this depiction in mind, we will remember that we never reveal any Lights outside the vessels. When Kabbalists say that Lights enter or exit the vessels, they wish to emphasize how one draws nearer to the attainment of the constant state. In Kabbalistic terms, Ein Sof is a state of “complete rest,” meaning it is unchanging. Our work is to gradually prepare our tools of perception to perceive that state. Thus, the only change is in our abilities to perceive.

If Nature Is Perfect and Eternal, Why Don’t We Perceive It?

When Light “clothes” a person and one feels how it gradually enters, the constant state becomes gradually clearer as one awakens to feeling it. The Light never actually enters and never actually exits. It only becomes clearer and more evident, meaning more revealed and less concealed.

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Acquiring the Tools to Perceive Spirituality

From birth, we have the tools to perceive the physical reality. Within these tools are “information bits” about the states and shapes that we are destined to realize—the Reshimot. Through education and environmental influence our tools evolve until we have “normal” perception of the physical reality.

However, this is not the case concerning the perception of the spiritual reality. We have no “standard” by which to test if we are building our inner vessels correctly to disclose the attribute of bestowal and the discovery of the spiritual reality.

We do not know what to do with our desires, how we should shape them, and with which intentions we should prepare them. To assist us in this task, Kabbalists provide us with the necessary definitions. They teach us how we can calibrate our tools of perception to perceive the spiritual reality.

We perceive the physical reality in a predetermined manner; we were born and raised without being asked our opinions in the matter. The physical perception patterns that were formed in us while maturing make us sense the Light of Ein Sof. This Light actually stands opposite us all the time—the physical reality within which we and the world around us exist.

Yet, nothing is preordained as far as the spiritual reality is concerned. We must find our own ways of perceiving spirituality, and only the tools that we will build will provide each of us understanding about the Creator, the Upper Force that builds and influences everything.

We should keep in mind that reality is built within us. Our inner qualities reflect a “shadow” upon the abstract Light, thus creating our world pictures, the spiritual as well as the physical. Thus, the way we will perceive the Creator depends solely on our own qualities.

The Scientific Evolution of How We Perceive Reality

The wisdom of Kabbalah has maintained its stance concerning the perception of reality for thousands of years. Conversely, science cultivated its approach through several key stages.

The classic perception, whose protagonist was Isaac Newton, states that the world exists in and of itself, regardless of whether or not we are there to perceive it. As the science of biology evolved, it enabled us to see the world through the eyes of other creatures. We discovered that different animals perceive the world in very different ways.

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What Kabbalah Can Do to Your Perception

There is a story about the American Indians who did not see Columbus’s armada approaching, since they simply had no previous memories, conception of such structures as ships.

If we think some more about the Indians and Columbus’ ships we might ask this: If a caveman were to be born in today’s world, would he see the cars and the buildings? The answer is that he would not. Would he then bump into buildings or be hit by a car as soon as he left the sidewalk?

Before we answer these questions, we must understand that we perceive only such Forms that our senses are equipped to detect. For example, the air around us, which seems empty, might actually be as condensed and solid as cement. We are accustomed to seeing this world as a space where we can move about freely. But if we build appropriate tools of perception, we will feel that the world is actually filled with the Creator’s enormous powers, which do not allow us any free movement. If this were to happen, we would feel totally controlled by the Creator, as if we were “planted” in cement, unable to make even a single free gesture.

Because our caveman would not have the sense that perceives the wall as Matter or as Form in Matter, he would be able to go through walls as if they were air. Kabbalists wish to direct our observations so we can perceive the world correctly. If we were to draw ourselves just a bit off our ordinary perception of the world and into the real perception that Kabbalists describe, this world may seem very strange to us.

Why What You Perceive on the Outside Is Really Inside of You

Today, many quantum physicists are discovering that the world has a “strange” regularity of time, space, and motion. For example, they say that objects can be in more than one place at a time. This oddity leads them to think that everything is measured with respect to the observer. This means that the existence or absence of the caveman’s wall, as well as the ability to move through it, are measured solely by the state of the perceiver’s vessels.

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