–Shamati article #211 by Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag

One who is sitting at one’s home is not like one who is standing before a King. This means that faith should be that he will feel as though he is standing before the King all day long. Then his love and fear will certainly be complete. And as long as he has not achieved this kind of faith, he should not rest, “for that is our lives, and the length of our days,” and we will accept no recompense.

And the lack of faith should be woven in his limbs until the habit becomes a second nature, to the extent that “when I remember Him, He does not let me sleep.” But all the corporeal matters quench this desire, since he sees that anything that gives him pleasure, the pleasure cancels the deficiency and the pain.

However, one must want no consolation, and should be careful with any corporeal thing that one receives, so it will not quench his desire. This is done by regretting that by this pleasure, the sparks and powers of the vessels of Kedusha (Sanctity) are missing in him, meaning desires for Kedusha. And through the sorrow, he can keep from losing the vessels of Kedusha.

|-image captured from Burstein, G., & Negoita, C. V. (2011). “Foundations of a postmodern cybernetics based on Kabbalah.” Kybernetes. Google Scholar.

Kabbalists attained spirituality and wrote about it in their books. They perceived that the root of the entire reality is a Supreme Power, which they named “His Essence”, because they could not attain the power itself. However, they did perceive that there is a thought, an aim, to create creatures in order to delight, which comes from His Essence. They named that thought and aim “The Thought of Creation”, or “Upper Light.” It turns out that from the creature’s perspective, the Light is the Creator, because it cannot attain His Essence. Hence the Creator-creature contact is maintained through the Upper Light.

In short, there is a Light that stems from His Essence. The Light wants to create a creature and delight it by filling it with pleasure. That is, the purpose of the Light is to create a creature that would feel the Light as pleasure.

The Kabbalists therefore called the creature “vessel” and the Light “filling.” The Light that stems from His Essence in order to create the creature is called Behinat Shoresh (Root Phase), because it is the root of the entire reality. That Light then creates a desire to take pleasure in the Light. The desire for pleasure is also called “Will to Receive” (Light).

The intensity of the pleasure depends only on the intensity of the desire to receive it, just as in our world one may have an empty stomach, but no desire to eat. Hence, the desire is the vessel for the filling, and without it there is no pleasure. There is no coercion in spirituality and the filling is only equal to the desire.

The Light that stems from His Essence creates a vessel and fills it. The pleasure that the creature feels when it receives the Light is called Ohr Hochma (Light of Wisdom). The desire created by the Light that fills it is called Behina Aleph (First Phase). It is called by that name because it is the first Behina (appearance/manifestation) of the future vessel. But that desire is not yet an independent one, as it is created directly by the Light.

The actual creature is the one whose desire to enjoy the Creator’s full Light for its own delight. This desire and the decision to enjoy it for self arise from within. Such desire needs to be imprinted in it by the Creator.

In order to receive Light, the creature must know how intense the pleasure from the Light is before it receives it. Then, it must be filled with Light, and then feel what it is like to be without the Light. Only then is the real desire for the Light created.

||| -cited from Michael Laitman, Ph.D. – “The Path of Kabbalah“ / Part Three: The Structure of the Upper Worlds / Chapter 3.5 – ‘The Four Phases in the Evolution of the Vessel’