A New World

If I look at myself from the side, like an unbiased psychologist, I begin to see how the Creator controls me. At that point I can produce a correct response, assume control over myself, set a goal and make use of all my resources to achieve it.

I must always try to see what I am being controlled by and how. Sometimes I am swept by insurmountable desires, to which I simply lose my head and surrender. I almost forget that they have come and taken over me, that they are not me. Still I must remain my own judge, and continue to struggle for an opportunity to make a spiritual push.

To be successful I must find an additional force beyond the plane of corporeal desires. And this force can only be received from the right environment. There is me with my physical desires, and there's the environment with the human desires for money, fame, power and knowledge.

In order to advance spiritually I must exist outside of this circle, in another kind of force-one of spiritual origin. I have a point in the heart, but that is not enough. I need the group and the study, the books and the teacher. I need a great force that will lift me out of all these desires and into the spiritual world, together with the desires. It is not my aim to neglect them. Simply, on their basis and with the help of this new force, I'll be able to set the right course. This is how my point in the heart, which has sprung up amidst the rest of my desires, helps me to find a new environment-a new world, without which I would be left with nothing.

Optical Illusion

My perception of the world, my sensation of life, is contained in desire. Desire is the only thing that was created. It lives "within itself" and perceives everything "within itself."

But its perception is in two "formats": part of the picture it perceives as "itself," and the other part as the "surrounding world." This is my perception in my desire, which is split into two-inner and outer, me and my environment. The picture of reality divides into circles that expand from inside out: soul, body, immediate surroundings, distant surroundings. In reality this whole perception exists within me, within my desire.

Conclusions:

• If I want to change the world, I need to change my desire. My perception of the world depends on my desire; moreover, the whole world is perceived within it.
• The fact that I perceive the world as external is an illusion. It exists completely in my desire, only I presently don't feel it.

I relate to nature and to humanity, which are actually parts of myself, as something alien, and as a result of this attitude I suffer. I don't even realize the harm I cause myself with this chimera of the outside world. It is a mistake, an optical illusion!

It only appears to me that before me are people I can disregard. But in reality I simply don't realize that in so doing I bring miseries and problems to myself. And my entire life becomes filled with them. What a terrible, twisted perception of reality.

The science of Kabbalah is there to unite my disconnected parts. Alone I am incapable of it, but I can make a request for the Light to come and correct my soul. Then I will see one reality, one desire, and inside it one Kli and one Light.

As we move toward the goal we try to aim ourselves toward unity. When reading The Book of Zohar I simply must continually bring myself back to the sensation of the world inside me. Whatever the text may speak about, all of these things are inside me-my forces, qualities and desires. All the spiritual worlds are within me, while outside there is nothing. The world mustn't be divided into inner and outer.

All of this is one Kli. By remembering this we draw upon ourselves the influence of the Light, which unites together the separate parts of our perception.