A Space for the Light

Question: How does my point of view change in practice when I come out of egoistic love and see the world through the desires of others? Will I see a different room, a different glass that is now on the table in front of me, and will I see all these people differently?

Dr. Laitman's Answer: An animal, including myself, will always remain an animal. You always remain in the point of your "self," but you add a completely different sense (vessel or Kli) to it-the desires of other people.

The Creator created a desire consisting of ten parts (Sefirot, HaVaYaH). Right now I only feel the lowest layer of this desire, a black point. I am born, live, and die; and I return to the same ten Sefirot of my egoism, to the sensation of this world. This continues from one generation to the next, from one life cycle to the next (or from one Partzuf to the next), each time going through the same states: embryo, feeding, and maturation (from one Partzuf to the next), and then once again: embryo, feeding, maturation, and so on.

How can I feel the world in a different way, not just from the black point, but through the desires of other people who are outside of me? When this happens, "I" still remain; my world won't change! If I disappear, then in relation to what will I feel others? I have to feel others opposite myself, as opposite and hateful to me. And this feeling has to increase more and more.

There is no hatred greater than the one that was revealed in the group of Rabbi Shimon. When above it, they built love among them, they attained the revelation of the Light of The Zohar. There was great hatred inside and great love above it; this is what provides the contrast between them, in which the Light of Hochma shines, the Light of Attainment. Inside there is enormous egoism, and above it there is a screen. That is the only way to reveal a great Light.

The Animate World And The Human World

Rabbi Akiva said, "Love your neighbor as yourself, that is the great rule of the Torah!"

Why is love for one's neighbor a great rule, the foundation that categorically divides us into two halves: animate and human? If I love myself, then I am an animal; if I love my neighbor, then I am human. If I am an animal, then I only feel this material life; but to the degree I begin to love others, I feel the Creator, the spiritual world.

Where do I feel spirituality? I feel it inside the force of love that is called my spiritual vessel, my Kli. Right now my vessel is egoistic love, the desire to love myself, in which I feel this world today. Inside this egoistic reality, I reveal what is good for me and what is bad.

I reveal the world and the entire diversity of its shades only in relation to myself. All of the colors and sounds in the world depend on what is useful to me and what is harmful. I am afraid of one thing and I desire something else. I repel one thing and attract something else. Any influence is revealed inside my senses, which operate in relation to my love for myself. Therefore, I don't even see anything that does not pertain to my self-love; I don't perceive its existence!

I am facing Infinity, but I don't feel it. In relation to me it seems not to exist at all, because it does not make me feel good or bad. Egoistic love determines the volume of the universe that I feel; so out of the entire World of Infinity, I feel just a tiny sphere: my world.

When I start to come out of myself, I feel in my previous desire what is good for others. In other words, I start to love my neighbor. This is called the Upper, spiritual World. Then I reveal an entirely different universe.

Even if I now tune out of egoistic thoughts about myself, in a purely material sense, and start to think about my friend, then I will feel a completely different world. It will have completely different problems and solutions. Therefore, when I reveal what is good for someone else, in relation to me it will be called the Upper, spiritual World.

That friend will see the same thing as his material, egoistic world. But when I desire to dress into the same reality and reveal his world from within him, it will turn into the spiritual world for me.

This exercise enables me to come out of myself and feel the Creator. I will feel Him inside of you, as it is written, "The Creator dwells inside His nation."