Man was created with the desire to enjoy which aspires to be fulfilled, feels deficient if it is not, and sees the whole meaning of its existence in it. Besides this, man has no sensation. All our sensations come solely from pleasures that we see before us—that is from what our world is built. Reality is comprised of the pictures of pleasures that our imagination paints for us.
We see around us the still, vegetative, animate world, and other people because our desire is composed of four levels at which we experience images of all possible pleasures. But if we do not want to live among these illusions and wish to see the real world, we must view it not from the desire to enjoy but from the desire to bestow. In fact, it is there that we find our root and our connection with it, meaning the Thought of Creation, its program and purpose. But egoistic desire separates us from it all, from the true knowledge, sensation, and purpose.
We have a unique opportunity to get closer to the true picture, to put a veil on the picture painted for us by our egoism. And it isn’t that we should stop seeing it all together, but rather stop giving it as much importance as we do today. Instead, we must search for the picture of roots that lie behind it, which emerges in the very same desires if they change direction from receiving to bestowal.
Desire is one, but all of its parts (the still, vegetative, animate, and human) must be transformed into bestowal. And then we will see the roots of that very picture which is seen in our desire to receive pleasure for ourselves.
This is done by “the shadow of holiness.” After all, when a person strives for this kind of shadow, he tries to make it himself. But soon he finds that he is incapable of it. He finds that his flight from the desire to enjoy and trying to put a “shadow” on it, meaning make the screen, restriction, and work above it, is impossible without outside help. It requires a miracle!
A miracle is something out of the person’s hands and not available to him directly as an obvious means. And gradually he comes to the conclusion that the very root, the upper force he wants to disclose, should help him and deliver the concealment.
But since a person asks for it on his own volition, it is counted as if he created this shadow. And so he conceals his desire to enjoy more and more, which is regarded as, “do not do to someone what is hateful to you,” and he acquires the property of Bina, bestowal in order to bestow (Hafetz Hesed).
And when he finishes the job and rises above all of his egoistic desires to Mount Sinai, he starts to work, even receiving in order to bestow, in “loving his neighbor as himself.” Gradually, all desire turns into bestowal, and so on until the end of correction.
All of this is accomplished by way of concealment or so-called “modesty.” It is the work when a person is looking how to hide from his desire to enjoy, to not use it directly, selfishly, and certainly not to use it instinctively without thinking, but only after rigorous analysis and testing. This is the very first stage of our work.
If the human in us learns to hide from the desire to enjoy within us, he separates himself from this desire and rises above the screen. And at that moment, he is connected with the root and makes calculations above reason. Thus he keeps walking the path and advances.
[49209]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39
No comments:
Post a Comment