September 7, 2024
January 29, 2017 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Perceiving Reality, Quotes
To fully understand the world we live in, we need a research tool that can explore what our senses cannot perceive.
The wisdom of Kabbalah gives us a chance to comprehend the hidden part—the spiritual realm. “Comprehending” is forming a new set of sensors that are beyond the regular five bodily perceptions. The sensations that we experience through new sensors are called “the soul.” In addition to our current “animal” sensations, we can develop qualitatively different organs of vision, hearing, and senses of taste, smell, and touch that are called: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. With their help, we will perceive the reality beyond our corporeal sensors.
July 13, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
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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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.
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June 1, 2008 at 8:34 pm · Filed under Perception of Reality, Resources
You Don’t Have to Believe
“Kabbalah is not for believing. The first rule in Kabbalah, which first of all is a science, says: ‘The judge has only what his eyes can see.’ Meaning, everything comes through experimentation, study, and observing for yourself.”
– Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the video clip “Reincarnation.”
The following list of materials deals with the attainment of reality, a fundamental concept in the science of Kabbalah:
“Perceiving Reality” Video Clips:
* Belief – Do I Have to Believe in God to Live a Spiritual Life?
* Consciousness – What States of Consciousness Have Other People Achieved?
* Kabbalah – What Is the Essence of Kabbalah?
Articles in the Kabbalah Today publication:
* Baal HaSulam on the Perception of Reality – “That which we cannot feel, we also cannot imagine… We attain only manifestations and reflections of operations that stem from the essences.” – Baal HaSulam
* I Saw a Reversed World – Spirituality is an opposite world to our current reality, and it needs to be seen to be believed.
* Living the Spiritual Dream World – When we discover our true state of existence, we’ll see that our current state is just a dream.
Articles by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD:
* The Science of Kabbalah: A Method for Researching Man and the World – Kabbalah consists of a number of areas of study, though all of them talk about the attainment of the Single Field – the Common Law of Creation.
* Body and Soul – The science of Kabbalah is intended for revelation of the Upper World to the same extent of clarity and reliability as the earthly sciences reveal our world to us.
* Matter and Form in Kabbalah – The science of Kabbalah subdivides into two parts: the knowledge of matter and the knowledge of a form. However, unlike conventional science, even the knowledge of a form in the science of Kabbalah is based entirely on scientific research and practical experience.
Recommended Book by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD on the perception and attainment of reality:
* Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life – Free PDF Download | Purchase
Articles by Baal HaSulam:
* Preface to the Book of Zohar
* Matter and Form in the Science of Kabbalah
* The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy
Lessons by Rav Laitman on Baal HaSulam’s Article “Preface to the Book of Zohar” [approx. 90 min. each]:
1. wmv video | mp3 audio (9 November, 2007)
2. wmv video | mp3 audio (16 November, 2007)
3. wmv video | mp3 audio (23 November, 2007)
4. wmv video | mp3 audio (30 November, 2007)
5. wmv video | mp3 audio (7 December, 2007)
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