Now that we understand what we can study and what we can\u2019t, let\u2019s see what we are actually studying and perceiving through our senses. Baal HaSulam, who researched the whole of reality and then wrote about his discoveries, said that we do not and can not know what exists outside of us. For example, we have no idea what is outside our ears, what makes our eardrums respond. All we know is that our ears are reacting to a stimulus from the outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even the names we attach to phenomena have nothing to do with the phenomena themselves, but with our reactions to them. At any given moment, numerous events happen right next to us, but we are unaware of them. They go unnoticed by our senses because we relate only to phenomena that our senses can perceive. This is why we can\u2019t perceive the Essence of anything outside of us: we only study our reactions to events and to objects, not to the events and the objects themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This rule of perception applies not only to the spiritual worlds; it\u2019s the law of the whole of Nature. Relating to reality in this way immediately makes us realize that what we see is not what actually exists. This understanding is paramount if we want to achieve spiritual progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To relate correctly to reality, we mustn\u2019t think that what we are perceiving is the \u201creal\u201d picture. In other words, the fact that we see a red apple as red doesn\u2019t mean that it is actually red, only that I am perceiving<\/em> it as red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, if you ask physicists, they\u2019ll tell you that the only true statement you can make about a red apple is that it\u2019s not<\/em> red. If you remember how the Masach<\/em> (Screen) works, you know that it receives what it can receive in order to give to the Creator, and rejects the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, an object\u2019s color is determined by light waves that the illuminated object couldn\u2019t<\/em> absorb. We are not seeing the color of the object itself, but the light that the object rejected<\/em>. The real color of the object is the light that it absorbed; but because it absorbed this light, it cannot reach our eye, and we therefore can\u2019t see it. This is why the red apple\u2019s real color is anything but red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how Baal HaSulam, in the \u201cPreface to The Book of Zohar,\u201d relates to our lack of perception of the Essence: \u201cIt is known that what we cannot feel, we also cannot imagine; and what we cannot sense, we cannot imagine, either. \u2026 It follows that the thought has no perception of the Essence whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, because we cannot sense an Essence, any Essence, we also cannot perceive it. But the concept that baffles most Kabbalah students the first time they study Baal HaSulam\u2019s Prefaceis how little we really know about\u00a0ourselves<\/em>. Here\u2019s what he has written in this regard: \u201cMoreover, we do not even know our own Essence. I feel and know that I occupy a certain space in the world, that I am solid, warm, and that I think, and other such manifestations of the operations of my Essence. Yet, if you ask me what is my own Essence \u2026 I will not know what to answer you.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that we understand what we can study and what we can\u2019t, let\u2019s see what we are actually studying and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":13260,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"topic":[27],"class_list":["post-13266","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","topic-michael-laitman"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n