Description

A section from Baal HaSulam׳s article ״The Acting Intelligence״ with commentary.

Transcript

Now, let’s return to the article “The Acting Intelligence” by Baal HaSulam. And as we read this, try to connect to the author’s thought and to his feeling, but especially try to connect to the thought and feeling behind why he is expressing this to you.

The Acting Intelligence

I will explain by way of an illustration: we observe that in every deed performed in the world there adheres and remains in that deed the very mind which performed it; so that in the table we sense the mindful craft of the carpenter and his command of his craft, whether great or small, for at the time of his work he evaluated it with his knowledge and intelligence, so that one who examines that deed and thinks about the mind concealed therein (realizes) it is from its inception bound up with the mind that made it, that is, they are, in fact, unified.

We can see in everything that appears in this world, that there is a thought behind it. It simply doesn’t arise out of nothing. There is in the world that we see before us definitely craftsmen behind the objects. And we know from this physical example that the intention, that is, the quality of the work, the care, what it is that was intended for our use, can be felt even in the simplest things. It’s what we call quality. It is a sensation not that this is an expensive or simply a beautiful object, but that if you really look at it, what you are sensing is the intention behind that thing; the quality of the mind, the quality of the desire to give an object or a circumstance of beauty to us.

And we may look at a physical object and perhaps we will be blinded by its opaque quality, but to the degree that we desire to feel and know and become like that thing behind it, that is: I want to know what my friend’s experience was, I want to know what the artist meant by this, I want to feel the message that is really intended in this. If I just take the object as it is, I can’t understand anything, but if I look at the object, I can feel the mind of the artist, of the craftsman.