The universe appears to be enormous, but it is in fact minuscule in comparison to the world that we can discover if we rise above the limits imposed on us by our inborn egoistic nature.
If we break free from our egoistic approach to life by developing an additional sense of bestowal, then we enter the perception of a completely new reality existing outside us.
Our inborn five senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste—are senses of reception. They draw information from a source unknown to us, and what we ultimately perceive is an extremely narrow corporeal picture of reality. And within this narrow picture of reality, we perceive a wide and expansive universe with unfathomable space.
However, we perceive such a picture through our five limiting senses. The reason for perceiving through narrow channels that limit the information we receive is so that we will develop a desire to break beyond the limits of this perception, and by doing so, discover a truly wider and broader reality.
The question then becomes, how can we break free from such a limiting picture where we wish to receive into ourselves at every moment? The answer is—by developing a new sense of bestowal. The attainment of a new sense that feels reality not through reception, but through bestowal, will let us exit our physical sphere of time, space and motion, and discover a much more expansive reality than the universe we currently perceive.
The method for the development of this additional sense is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.” By applying this method, we can develop a new sense of bestowal and love, which grants us a new perception of the eternal spiritual world. We then discover that another reality exists adjacent to our current one, but it becomes revealed through a new perception and sensation of reality: from oneself outward.
Therefore, it is written that “Love your friend as yourself” is “a great rule of the Torah,” because it points to the quality that we need to develop in order to attain a new sense of bestowal and love. By undergoing this shift in perception, we come to sense the spiritual world and the upper force filling reality.
Based on an interview with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on an Israeli Radio Program, 103FM, on August 16, 2015. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash.
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