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.
We are born into this world with five tools of perception—the five natural senses—and these senses evolve from generation to generation. The environment surrounds every newborn child. As a result, when we grow we perceive the things around us as solid facts, as Forms in Matter perceived by our five senses.
Yet, even our perception through the five senses reflects what our own senses project, nothing more. I am the creator of the buildings, the cars, Earth, the universe, and my whole reality. I create them in my vessels, in my sensations. Outside of me, they are amorphous.
It is very hard to detach ourselves from our natural perceptions. It seems that a different outlook on reality is possible only after we cross the barrier to the spiritual world. Only then do we understand that things might be different than they first seemed.
For example, we cannot go through walls because we are controlled by the very same rules that we create. But the Upper Light is abstract; it is we who limit It. There is only one law in reality: “the law of equivalence of Form.” The more we equalize our own form with the Light’s, the more liberated and unlimited we become.
Our will to receive is divided into 613 desires. According to our difference in Form from that of the Light, we erect boundaries around each and every desire. The sum of all these limits creates the shape of our internal tool of perception, and that tool produces our depiction of reality.
It will be easier for us to understand the law of equivalence of Form if we consider how radio receivers work. A receiver can pick up waves only when it creates identical waves within it. Similarly, we “pick up” things that seemingly exist on the outside—but only according to what we have created within.
How Altruism Is Necessary to Expand Perception
The law of equivalence of Form is constant and circumscribes the whole reality. It is valid for both altruistic and egoistic vessels. In other words, we perceive the corporeal reality and the spiritual reality in exactly the same way—through equivalence of Form. The only difference between the two kinds of vessels is in their directions: one is aimed toward the self, the other toward the Creator. However, existence in egoistic vessels permits a very limited number of vessels to be felt.
Quantum physicists are beginning to discover that beyond a certain boundary of research, the world seems to “vanish.” Kabbalists wrote about such “discoveries” thousands of years ago. They explained that beyond this boundary, the physical matter and its shapes disappear, and only forces and shapes that are above Matter remain. Continuing to study from this boundary onward will be possible only after researchers acquire the appropriate altruistic vessels.
Kabbalists depict the ground rules for the appropriate attitude to reality with much greater depth than scientists ever will. Only once these rules have been applied will it be possible to progress in the research and perception of reality.
Kabbalah was kept hidden until recently because humanity was not ready to understand it correctly. The achievements of contemporary science have prepared us to understand the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is why Kabbalah is being disclosed today.
Think That the More You Acquire the Greater Your Ability Is to Perceive the World? Think Again
Let us return for a minute to the caveman who stumbled into our time. We tend to think that our vessels are richer than his because we can see Forms that for him are nonexistent.
However, this is a mistake: while we have indeed evolved and acquired impressions of more Forms than did the caveman, building many more vessels, these vessels actually limit us more. Forms in Matter that we perceive were Abstract Forms for the caveman; they did not exist for him, and hence, did not limit him.
In the future, we will discover that the more we “acquire,” the more we limit ourselves. We progress by acquiring forms and building more and more structures, but in the end these structures limit us on every level of reality and show us that we are not at all free.
As we evolve, we absorb numerous impressions from our environment: our parents, teachers, friends, and experiences. These impressions make us look at reality according to our inner “self-programming.” Thus, reality is only a projection of our interior software; it does not exist outside our internal vessels. Reality is a figment of our imagination, but our minds portray its image as existing on the outside.
If The Spiritual Reality Exists Within Me, How Can I Perceive It?As with the physical reality, the spiritual reality does not exist outside us, but is really a Light dressed in a Kli. Outside the Kli is only abstract, shapeless Light, and all we are really talking about is applying Forms to the will to receive.
Kabbalists state that in the spiritual reality, the will to receive can adopt a finite number of discrete Forms. By joining all these Forms, we can perceive that of the continuous influence of the Light, which is the very image of the Creator.
Corporeality is a replica, a projection of spirituality, like an offshoot of a root. Hence, the process that unfolds in corporeality is very similar to the spiritual process. The egoistic will to receive can assume a limited number of Forms, after which matter disappears—similar to what researchers are discovering today.
After one builds a great many Forms, these become a single picture of “one” bestowal or “one” reception. This is a projection of the spiritual state called Gmar Tikkun (End of Correction). Gmar Tikkun is a spiritual state that happens after the Kli has robed itself with all the Forms of bestowal of the Light. In such a state, the Light and the Kli equalize completely.
Where Quantum Physics Ends and the Wisdom of Kabbalah Begins
The only way by which the vessel can accelerate constructing the Forms it currently lacks is by choosing the appropriate environment for spiritual progress. Such an environment would make one “imagine” the Forms described in Kabbalah books, and thus induce the action of the Light upon one’s soul. The Light, in turn, will then build “sensors” to detect Forms of bestowal.
In fact, this Light is the same Abstract Form into which everything “disappears,” as quantum physics has discovered. This Abstract Form projects the Form of bestowal upon the will to receive, and as a result, the “sensors” to perceive It begin to formulate within us.
Kabbalists define this Light as “the Light that reforms” because it creates the Form of bestowal within us, and thus brings us closer to our perfect state.
Today, many researchers believe that at the most fundamental level, we are all one, and that the connection between us should be one of love. However, these researchers will not find a way to realize this ideal because the Force to make this correction must be drawn from “the other side,” the side of love. This can only be done through the study of Kabbalah.
Eventually, researchers will discover that matter vanishes entirely and that the only thing that exists is pure thought, but they will not be able to progress beyond that. They will sense that there is another existence beyond our own, where our Matter is opposite to our present Matter, and that we are connected in perfect unity. Yet, the way to obtain that Form of existence, the realm at the “other side” of quantum laws, can only be taught by those who are already “there”—Kabbalists.
It is impossible to break that barrier without drawing the Light found in Kabbalah books, because these are the only texts that were written from the “other side.” One’s desire to “get there” along with the study of the right Kabbalistic texts draws Light upon that person and builds within that person’s soul the Forms in which one perceives the spiritual realm. Just like the shaman had to build the right shapes to see the ships, we have to build Forms of bestowal to be in the spiritual realm.
“Who Else Wants to Stop Being a Caveman and Acquire Human Properties?” is based on the book, Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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