Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
"In order for one to reach the truth, there must be a sensation that if one does not obtain the truth, one feels oneself as dead [How does one get this sensation that if he does not obtain the truth, he is dead?] because [now, presently] he wants to live." That is, one desires to obtain the truth, for the truth is life for him. And now one decides that if one does not obtain the truth, one is simply dead.
"This is the meaning of "I shall not die but live" etc. said about one who wants to obtain the truth.
This is the meaning of, "Jonah, the son of Amithai." Jonah comes from the (Hebrew) word Hona'a (lit. Fraud), and son, from the (Hebrew) word Mevin (lit. Understands). One understands because one always examines the situation one is in and sees that he has deceived himself, that he is not walking on the path of truth.
This is so because truth means to bestow, meaning Lishma [for the sake of the Creator]. The opposite of it is fraud and deceit, meaning only to receive, which is Lo Lishma [for one's own sake].
When one evaluates his inner state, he sees that his direction is still not right.
"By that [constantly evaluating onself] one is later imparted the "Amithai", meaning Emet (lit. Truth).
This is the meaning of "thine eyes are as doves." The Eynaim (lit. Eyes) of Kedusha (lit. Sanctity), called Eynaim of the Holy Divinity, are Yonim (lit. Doves). They deceive us and we think that she has no Eynaim.
"...The truth is that one who is awarded the truth, sees that she does have eyes. This is the meaning of, "A bride with fair eyes, her whole body needs no scrutiny.""
Baal HaSulam does not explain much here. He only says that if one aspires for the truth, his understanding is the understanding of Lishma, which means, one aspires for the truth when one wants to obtain bestowal. Ben (son) also comes from the word Mevin (understands), as is written "the heart understands".
If one's desires are correctly reformed and joined with the intention for the sake of bestowal, then these desires become Kli for understanding. This stands in contrast to sensual Kelim, which do not have the correct intention.
When desires have the right intention, in this intention one attains the thougths of the Creator. Then, in addition to this sensation, in addtion to Toch (the body) and the Kli itself, one also posseses Rosh (the head), or the thoughts and plans of the Creator. If one attunes oneself to it, one attains the head placed above one's body.
The Creator created the will to receive, and at the beginning we feel only good or bad in it: good when there is a filling, and bad when we feel a lack, or emptiness. And there is nothing else besides this.
The feeling of suffering is the absence of fulfillment, yet, it does not mean that the Creator sends us something bad. Simply, we experience the lack of filling in the desire to feel delight as suffering, illness, or death. The feeling of fullness in the will to receive gives us the sensation of life, understanding, and inspiration.
A human being is created as a sensing Kli with the will to enjoy. By studying how to receive the filling, how to fulfill his or her desires, a human being gradually attains wisdom. However, this is not the wisdom of how to fulfill one's egoistic desires by attracting fillment to oneself in various ways. A human being feels even greater emptiness from this. When one tries to fill himself, the distance between him and fillment becomes even greater, and this makes one suffer.
One realizes in his studies, in his wisdom and his understanding, that he must stop attracting fillment for his own sake. Instead, one must perform a restriction on this action and start doing just the opposite - with the help of this very desire, regardless of its emptiness, he wants, if possible, to bestow. Instead of naturally following commands of this desire, one must work with it, and reject it.
To the extent one starts rejecting his desire, he begins to feel that it is getting filled. As Baal HaSulam says, the problem is purely psychological. We are simply enveloped from all sides and cannot understand that when we exit our egoistical desire and reject it - it is the only problem - only then do we start to receive the filling. But to me, this act of rejection is equivalent to suicide, and I'm unable to perform it.
I must come to an understanding that this is true, that to reject pleasures means to desire to fill the others. This is what I'm asking the Creator for, and I plead with Him to give me such an opportunity. If with the help of the group I develop such a desire in myself and ask Him, then at the time I reject the desire, I will feel the fillment. This fillment is the Creator.
The degrees in which the creatures sense the properties of the Creator are called worlds. A human being starts feeling the spiritual worlds, or parts of the Creator. The part of the Creator that a human perceives inside of himself is, accordingly, the amount of pleasure that he rejects.
All that we study is the science of receiving delight - how to reveal the Creator using rejection, becoming equivalent to Him in rejecting everything for the sake of creatures. And this is called "I shall not die but live". At the beginning it seems to us as death: as if by rejecting these delights we reject the spirit of life and face death. However, this is not correct. On the contrary, this rejection turns into entry into the other - the spiritual - life.