World Though The Prism Of The Common Desire

Question: What is the collective perception of reality?

Let’s say I am a biological organism consisting of billions of cells that are united and that is how I perceive the world. But each cell in me somehow perceives the world as well. Could it be compared with how the individual perceives the world and how the society perceives it? How does the Kabbalist perceive the world?

Answer: Our body organically perceives the world though all its pores, though all its cells, though all its organs of perception: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

A Kabbalist perceives the world though the common desire, which consists of both the still, vegetative, animate, and human desires taken together. That is, to some extent, a Kabbalist perceives everything that exists in the universe as his own. For the most part, it is humanity’s desire that he feels as his own.

And it is not easy at all. This imposes a big change in his impressions of the world, brings corresponding reactions within him. Baal HaSulam writes that he feels everything within himself, on himself, but not at the level of separate sensations.

Let’s say there are ten children in the family, everybody has their needs, and the mother as if feels all of her children. She feels in general: what they lack, what is best for them, and so on. She does not feel the individual egoism of each, but in general, this desire, their aspiration, and the opportunity she can give them.
From a virtual lesson in Russian 7/10/2016[194825]