There is a tale of an old blind man who was sitting in the shadow of the temple when a passerby asked him, “Forgive me for my question, but how did you become blind?” “I have been blind since birth,” answered the old man. “What do you do?” asked the passerby. “I am an astronomer,” he answered. “I watch the sun and stars.” “But you can’t see them!”, the passerby exclaimed in surprise. “I see,” answered the old man. “They are here.” And he put his hand to his chest.
It is possible to live in this paradox, to be blind but see, deaf and able to hear music, and so on. It is because our senses, in principle, extend from the human desire to enjoy. If we had no such senses, we could be completely different.
If the sense organ is detached from us, for instance, like the blind old man who states that he is an astronomer, then how can we feel that we are not blind? The answer is in looking inside ourselves. Within us is the sky, the stars—absolutely everything. We can then be deaf and hear music, and so on with all of our senses, because we actually have no need for our senses. We do not need our body. If we had no bodies, we would experience pure happiness, harmony and peace.
Therefore, people who lack these senses have the ability to feel no inferiority or lack compared to others who have such senses. About the blind old man who stated that he was an astronomer, looking at the stars shows us the opposite part of the universe that we exist in, which immediately tells us about the infiniteness of the universe and our finiteness. We can discover the universe’s endlessness within ourselves, accordingly feeling ourselves moving into the state of infinity.
Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur on November 16, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman
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