Reason Or Desire: Who’s In Charge?
Question: Is it correct to clarify your
state with the help of the mind, using it to discern: Why did I receive this
state, where did it come from, and what should I do with it?
Dr.
Laitman's Answer: Nothing can
be clarified with the mind because the desire is what makes the mind work.
Don't think that the mind exists independently of desire, or that I can take
the mind and use it as a device to measure my state or desire. The mind is
controlled by the desire.
Sometimes it
tells you one thing and sometimes it tells you the exact opposite, depending on
your desire. Knowing this, can you really rely on its conclusions?
How does our
mind develop? It develops by virtue of my always wanting to do something, to
attain something, or to receive something; that is how I have built my mind. Thus,
the mind is an acquisition.
However,
when then Light comes, it gives us the opportunity to ascend so we are not
enslaved to the mind or the desire. The Light begins to rule over us instead,
elevating us and giving us its power.
From the 3rd part of the Daily
Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot
On The Thorny Path
The Zohar, Chapter "The Rose (Shoshana)": Rabbi Hizkiya began [his
speech]: "It is written, ‘As a rose among the thorns.'"...
The rose is Malchut and it includes all the souls that desire to reject
their egoism and unite. This is possible only with the help of the Light that
Reforms. Every person who aspires to attain the Upper World, to reveal the
Creator, essentially aspires to the general unification inside Malchut.
She is the place where the Creator becomes revealed.
The Book of
Zohar talks about
how this place becomes built from desires that are aimed at revelation, from
the spiritual aspirations of people who are ready to unite on the path to the
goal. We understand that we are unable to do this. However, the Light acts
inside Malchut, inside "the rose," despite the thorns that stand in the
way of unity. Whoever desires to reveal the Creator is willing to live with
these "prickles" and to make his way through them towards "the rose."
This is what
our efforts should be aimed at in spite of the egoism that pushes us away from
the goal over and over again. We must nevertheless overcome the thorns
surrounding the rose and unite all our desires into one.
We will
thereby evoke the Light that Reforms and reveal the Upper One.
From the 1st part
of the Daily
Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar
Kabbalah International
