October 23, 2024
July 10, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 9, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 8, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Why It Is Impossible to Know Something’s True Essence
Kabbalah teaches us that reality could be divided into four layers: essence, abstract form, form clothed in matter and matter.
Our tools of perception can never perceive the Essence, regardless of our degree. Although what we perceive is indeed the Essence, we can only perceive it through Matter, and we cannot even imagine what the Essence itself is like. Moreover, we cannot even want to perceive the Essence.
For example, none of us feels that an additional sixth finger would be welcome. However, if we could imagine that we once had a sixth finger, and that we could do something with it that we cannot do today, then we could talk about a need for a sixth finger. But if we never had an additional finger, we could not even imagine how it would benefit us. This is why we will never want a sixth finger.
Similarly, since we never felt an Essence, we cannot want to perceive the Essence. Attainment of Matter, the manifestation of the actions of the Essence that is present within the Matter, is quite satisfactory.
The above discussion raises an important question: If we cannot perceive the Essence, how did Kabbalists know that it exists? For the time being, we will leave this question unanswered, but we promise to return to it later.
How Practical Experimentation Is Used In Kabbalah
The will to receive is the Matter. It is divided into five degrees. When the will to receive is integrated with the intention to bestow, it adopts different Forms, from the most opposite from the Creator to the Form of the Creator Himself. While spiritually evolving, we gradually study all the qualities that Matter might assume. This is called “Formative Learning.”
We have a genuine desire to acquire the Forms of bestowal that are dressed in Matter. A genuine desire means that it is a desire that stems from having had this Form before and not having it now.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 30, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
How Can the Spiritual Reality be Perceived?
The gist of our work is the making of the Kli. If we know how to build our tool of perception correctly, we will understand where we truly are. Our substance consists of a desire to receive delight and pleasure.
If we can make this substance sensitive to insights concerning reception and bestowal, we will be able to use it to perceive the spiritual world. It is similar to the way a block of crude iron is melted to create engine parts. When assembled correctly, they yield a working engine.
Similarly, we must work with ourselves to perceive spirituality. Building the spiritual Kli is a lot like sculpting—you must carve the raw material and file it until the desired shape appears. The raw material, in this case, consists of our desires, our thoughts, and intentions.
How a Change of Intention Enables a Person to Feel Nature
The Creator formed Creation with the intention of doing good to His creatures. To realize His goal, He created a Kli—a will to receive—that would receive His benefit. At first, this will is shapeless. Shaping the will to receive is the work of us all until it is robed in its final form—bestowal, the form of the Creator.
The substance itself remains as it was first made—a will to receive pleasure—but changing the intention to bestowal likens its modus operandi to that of the Creator. Thus, the intention is the form.
Kabbalah books depict the forms that one should create in the will to receive, degree-by-degree, to finally sense the benefits that come from the Creator. The general will to receive consists of 613 desires, and each of these is topped either by an aim to receive, or an aim to give. These forms of reception or bestowal that “cover” each desire determine one’s degree of spiritual attainment.
A degree is a certain level of strength of the Form of bestowal. This enables the benefits of the Creator to manifest within the will to receive. The diverse fillings within the will to receive are the origin of the many names of the Creator. It is the perceiving individual who names the Creator according to the flavors he or she feels within the Creator’s bestowal.
What Kabbalah Researches
Once the Kabbalists attained the nature of reality and studied it, they divided the manner of recognition of reality into four levels: Matter, Form in Matter, Abstract Form, and Essence. Kabbalah is a practical study method that leads researchers thoroughly and systematically along the evolutionary trail. As in any other scientific method, Kabbalah teaches the researcher what to do, which results are to be expected, and expounds on the reasons for them. Kabbalah does not engage in depicting theoretical states that one cannot carry out independently and with full awareness.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 22, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Here Is a Method that Is Helping People Receive Endless Enjoyment
Kabbalah in Hebrew means “reception.” As its name testifies, Kabbalah teaches how to receive. With the right attitude towards reality, it is possible to experience endless enjoyment. This endless enjoyment is not from sex, food, a new car, a big house, or other transient, mundane pleasures. Instead, it is from those delights that can fill us with such utter bliss that we would transcend any sensation of time to receive them.
We sense the passing of time by the fluctuations between good and bad feelings, or sensations of fulfillment and absence of fulfillment. However, when we are in a state of elation, we are unaware of time. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that we can eliminate time altogether, along with the sensation of distance and any other limits or boundaries. One who has reached such a state is clearly living in an infinite, unlimited world.
Our lives will always contain two opposing elements—pleasure and desire, plus and minus. A pleasure that pervades a desire satiates it and cancels it. We come across this phenomenon in every area of life. When the plus neutralizes the minus, we end up feeling nothing at all. As long as we short-circuit pleasure and desire, we will be locked in a zero-sum equation. However, put a resistor between these opposites and they will work perfectly, creating everlasting enjoyment.
How Giving Is Possible through Receiving
Kabbalists explain that pleasure stems from the Upper Force. This Force sends us pleasure because It loves us. When we try to receive the pleasure directly, the pleasure cancels our desire to enjoy it and the pleasure stops.
Read the rest of this entry »
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
