Did You Know that Reality Is Really a Desire to Receive Pleasure?

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method for discovering the hidden part of reality, that imperceptible realm of reality that our five senses cannot grasp. It develops another sense in us, one that perceives the reality that exists beyond our present perception.

Kabbalah says that the whole of reality consists of a substance called “the will to receive pleasure.” This will to receive pleasure is essentially a desire to be filled with delight, enjoyment; it is what we so often refer to as “egoism.” This will to receive operates on all levels of existence: still (inanimate), vegetative, animate, and speaking.

Although the will to receive is the substance of all reality, the desire in itself is neither matter nor atoms, which came later. Everything that was created, that exists as the basis of reality, is based on the desire to enjoy, an aspiration for pleasure. In each level of reality, this aspiration takes on different forms.

Every Kabbalist, without exception, from Abraham to the last great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, maintained that the entire substance of Creation consists of a desire to receive. Every Kabbalah book speaks of the same thing, and all Kabbalists are in agreement in that regard.

Kabbalists are people who attain the Upper World; they speak from tangible attainment, not from theory. The word, “attainment,” refers to the ultimate degree of understanding. Let me make things easier to understand by using some drawings.

How Reality Develops in a Step-by-Step Process

Phase One in the Development of Reality: A Giver Needs a Receiver

We said that the will to receive is the basis of Creation. It is created by the expansion of the Upper Light. (In Kabbalah, the term “Light” designates giving, bestowing, love; it is referred to as “the Creator”). Thus, the Light created the will to receive that wants to be filled with the Light. Hence, the will to receive is also called Kli (vessel/receptacle), see Figure 1.

In other words, the desire to give creates the desire to receive, meaning the Light wants the Kli (vessel) to receive what it wants to give it.

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Are You Aware of the Amount of Reality that Exists that You Don’t Perceive?

The wisdom of Kabbalah (“reception” in Hebrew), as its name implies, teaches us how to receive. It explains how we perceive our surrounding reality. To understand who we are, we must first learn how we come to sense reality around us, and how to cope with the events that befall us. The wisdom of Kabbalah provides us with all these insights.

The wisdom of Kabbalah does not come to an individual naturally, but only when one reaches the right level of ripeness. This is why Kabbalah is being exposed to so many these days, and this is also the reason why it was hidden for thousands of years.

Previous generations believed that the world exists by itself, whether or not we are there to perceive it, the world is the way it is and exists objectively, independently. Afterwards, people began to understand that our picture of the world is shaped by who we are. In other words, the picture of the world is a combination of our own attributes and external circumstances.

Therefore, we perceive only a part of everything around us. For example, right now there are numerous waves outside us, but we can only perceive one of them, the wave that we are attuned to perceive. Hence, we perceive external conditions according to our internal qualities. If we have nothing in common with the outside world, we will not perceive or feel any of it.

Kabbalah speaks extensively of our perception of time, space, and motion. Why does it seem to us that reality expands, that it is at a certain distance from us? What is the source of our perpetual sense of movement and change? Is this a result of internal processes that we are experiencing, or does it exist regardless of them?

The more we progress in the study of our internal being, the more we find that our perception of reality depends on us. Once humankind sufficiently evolves in knowledge, science, and technology, we will be able to perceive what the wisdom of Kabbalah has to offer.

Here Is a Method that Is Helping People to Perceive the Entirety of Reality

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that around us there is only “The Upper Light,” a single force in a permanent, unchanging state. Nothing exists besides this Upper Light. In such a state, the words existent or nonexistent mean the same because we only measure changes. When there are no changes, there is nothing to measure.

Within each of us is a “gene,” a bit of information that constantly evokes in us new sensations and emotions. We picture the world from within these sensations, which is where we derive the awareness that we exist. All these processes occur within us and design our perception of the outside world.

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Why Evolution Is Really All About the Development of a Desire for Pleasure

The essence of human nature is its perpetually evolving desire for pleasure. To realize this desire, we feel compelled to discover, invent, and improve our reality. The gradual intensification of the desire for pleasure has been the force behind human evolution throughout our history.

The desire for pleasure evolves through several stages. In the first stage, it manifests in the need for sustenance, such as food, reproduction, and family. In the second stage, the desire for wealth arises, and in the third, there is a craving for honor, power, and fame. Development of these three stages had lead to major changes in human society—it became a diversified, multi-class society.

The fourth stage signifies our yearning for learning, knowledge and wisdom. This expresses itself in the development of science, educational systems, and culture. This stage has become associated with the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, and is still predominant today. The desire for knowledge and erudition requires that we understand our surroundings.

To understand the present state of humanity and its prospects, we must build a bridge connecting several milestones in the evolution of science. These milestones have significantly affected our approach to life.

How the Evolution of Thought Led to the Development of Empirical Science

The Scientific Revolution that occurred during the 16th century brought radical changes in our thought patterns. At the time, researchers believed that theories must be tested against experiments and observations. They also cautioned us to avoid mythological and religious explanations. At the center of scientific thinking was an analysis of reality, and the search for scientific answers to age-old questions. Until then, these topics had been ascribed to a divine power.

In his book, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687), Isaac Newton (1642-1727) proposed a theory of mechanics that would let us calculate the change in the motion of any body when influenced by a given force. The success of Newton’s theory presented a whole new worldview. Newton’s deterministic viewpoint stated that in any event, regardless of its nature, a certain natural law will manifest. The presence of the Divine was of little importance because the trajectory of all motion is fixed, and there was no intervention by the Divine.

The deterministic approach was well described by the astronomer, Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) as he sought to explain to Napoleon how our solar system had been formed. When Napoleon asked him about God’s place in the process, Laplace replied: “Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là” (“I did not need this hypothesis there”).

Thus, science left no room for the existence of other aspects beyond its own limits, including those realities that are hidden from our perception. Everyone believed that humanity had discovered the necessary measures to know the world as it really was.

In the late 1800s, it seemed that classical physics had provided researchers with a complete set of laws for every natural phenomenon. Many researchers maintained that these laws would help them explain even the few phenomena that remained mysteries. Since physics has always been considered “the mother of all sciences” and the forefront of technology and experimentation, its discoveries served as the foundation for research in other sciences, as well.

The Turning Point: Einstein and the Discovery of the Observer’s Relationship to Reality

The era of modern physics began in the early 1900s with Albert Einstein’s (1879-1955) revolutionary discoveries. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity generated a fundamental change in attitude towards everything that had previously been known about time, space, mass, motion, and gravity. Einstein’s theory unified time and space into a single entity—time-space—revoking the premise that time and space were absolute.

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Psalm 61
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments, for David.
Hear my cry, O Creator,
listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I.
3 For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
4 Let me dwell in your tent forever!
Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah
5 For you, O Creator, have heard my vows;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
6 Prolong the life of the king;
may his years endure to all generations!
7 May he be enthroned forever before the Creator.
Appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
8 So will I ever sing praises to your name,
as I perform my vows day after day.

The struggle is on the unity. Everything that a person feels comes from the Creator (i.e. the quality of love and bestowal), however in concealment, in the opposite of what one thinks is good and benevolent.

We perceive the opposite of good and benevolence because we receive from the Creator in our vessels of correction. In other words, we are shown what we need to correct.

We get bad feelings until we unite everything to a single source, where all the discernments that are considered as bad, the enemies, the haters, the “end of the earth,” (i.e. the “end of the desire,” where the Hebrew word Aretz [“earth”] extends from the same linguistic root as the word Ratzon [“desire”]) that are uncorrected, that he will try from there to cry out to the Creator, i.e. from being in the “end of th earth,” to try and unite, to connect to “There is none else besides Him” (i.e. to the attainment of the single force of bestowal and love that exists in reality), until the person reaches full adhesion with the Creator. As such, one in always in preparation toward the next state, and this continues until the end of correction.

If one thinks about the present and prepares oneself for the future, then the person is in a prayer, a request and in praise toward the Creator, i.e. one raises one’s relationship and expectations to adhesion with the Creator, and succeeds.

In the beginning of the path, it appears as if there are enemies and haters, and that the person needs to act in some way against them. Truly, there are states where a person needs to go out to war. Afterwards, when a person connects everything a little more to the Creator, then the enemies and haters disappear, and there exists only the Creator, who does everything out of Panim (anterior) and Achoraim (posterior), so that the person can come to differentiate between the force of bestowal from above and the force of reception from below.

When the enemy surfaces, it appears as if the Creator becomes distant and disappears, and when the person connects to that picture, he reaches a state where there is no difference between light and darkness, where his own mood plays no influence over him anymore, and he no longer relates to his own powers, but connects everything to the Creator, the single quality of love and bestowal, and the person comes to see how he was always in a corrected and balanced state, and was never outside holiness.

The difference between now and before, however, is that now the person attained that picture.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on May 19, 2014, available in the Kabbalah Media Archive.

How can one enter this process of self-transformation to reveal the force of love and bestowal acting perfectly in every state in the fastest way possible? This question and more are dealt with in the Free Kabbalah Course, which provides the fundamental principles and tools by which to correctly approach the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is recommended to take the Free Kabbalah Course before approaching the Daily Kabbalah Lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman. Click the banner below to sign up…

Psalm 63
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
O God, you are my Creator; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in the Creator;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

We see here that even a person who already very much yearns to be in bestowal, to identify with the force of bestowal, to come closer to the concept called “God,” to discover it within himself, that it does not take place all at once.

In other words, to what extent do we need to continually refine the yearning, the desire, the restriction, the screen, the reflected light, in order to be a “sanctuary” – “my soul thirsts for you”? If a person reaches vessels that are holy, in absolute bestowal – either bestowal in order to bestow or receiving in order to bestow – if he sees that holiness, then it is only possible as a result of the person preparing his vessels to be as such, in absolute bestowal.

We need to always remember that we speak about the Creator’s revelation (i.e. the revelation of the quality of bestowal and love) within the person.

“My soul thirsts for you” relates to one who yearns “When will it come?” Revelation means to reach, in the person’s correction, bestowal and giving. In other words, the desire to receive and for the revelation of the Creator is always in terms of the holy language, the language of bestowal, and not the language of reception. One aimed in such a direction asks: “Will I reach the state where my vessels will be corrected enough for revelation?” Revelation of the Creator is the quality of bestowal that I can pass to Him.

“Beholding your power and glory.” If we would see that “power and glory” mentioned, it would be the greatest darkness, because it is the quality of bestowal, and who needs that? However, in that he saw that he did not yet reach its end, he increases in strength and sensitivity.

Refining the quality of bestowal is that one is in that state of bestowal but has not yet attuned oneself completely to it. It is like tuning a radio and hearing the desired station, but not entirely clearly, and fine tuning it so that the frequency of the receiver is exactly the same as the frequency of the signal. It is the same here: he is fine tuning his vessel to precisely match the signal of bestowal.

What is the meaning of “the revelation of the Creator”? What does it mean that the Creator is a quality of bestowal? How can one fine tune oneself to this quality of bestowal and love? All these questions and more are dealt with in the Free Kabbalah Course, which provides the fundamental principles and tools by which to correctly approach the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is recommended to take the Free Kabbalah Course before approaching the Daily Kabbalah Lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman. Click the banner below to sign up…