Desire, Sensation, and the Development of the Mind

Kabbalists are human beings who have developed their capacity to feel and have thereby attained a deeper perception of reality. Human beings are fundamentally creatures of sensation. Our nature is a desire to receive and enjoy, and all our discernments are experienced within this desire. The intellect develops alongside these sensations, helping us distinguish, analyze, and understand what we feel.

Why the Intellect Develops

Without sensation, the intellect has no basis upon which to develop. This principle applies equally in corporeality and spirituality. Whether the desire is directed toward reception or bestowal, the intellect serves one essential purpose: to examine the desire, discern what it contains, and understand what it seeks.

The intellect cannot extend beyond the boundaries of the desire because it develops only in response to the desire's needs. It is, in this sense, an appendage of the desire. It emerges from the deficiencies revealed as the desire develops. As the desire begins to want one thing and then another, it gradually builds a mental system that enables it to understand how to attain what it wants.

The Discovery of Something Outside Me

But where does this development begin? It begins when the desire discerns that there is an "I" and that something outside of it can fulfill it. Without the sensation of an external source of fulfillment, the intellect would have no reason to develop. The desire would merely experience its own changing states: "I feel good" or "I feel bad." It could distinguish between pleasure and suffering, but it would have no means of understanding their cause or influencing its condition.

The Search for the Source of Sensation

The intellect begins to develop when the desire senses that good and bad come from something outside of itself. It recognizes that an external factor reaches it and produces one sensation or another. At that point, it begins to understand that its inner state depends on something beyond itself.

It then begins to investigate: What exists outside of me? When does it reach me? What determines whether it brings pleasure or suffering? What can I do to make it come in one way rather than another? How can I draw the desired fulfillment more quickly and avoid what causes pain? The intellect gradually develops through these questions.

The Sensation of the Other

Thus, the intellect develops through the sensation of the other, through the perception that something exists outside of me and that I depend on it. If the desire experienced only internal changes between good and bad, without sensing that these changes came from an external source, it would simply register pleasure and suffering and react instinctively. No intellect would need to develop alongside these sensations.

The intellect emerges from the deficiency revealed when I recognize that my inner state depends on something outside of me.

based on a lesson by Michael Laitman from 2007-08-09