Why You Can't See God - Yet

If you want to understand the nature of reality as we experience it, imagine a window with the sun shining through. It's a bright it's a bright sunny day. The sun is shining through the window and you draw a curtain across the uh window and it's not a blackout curtain. It's [clears throat] not opaque. It's translucent. In fact, it's it's rather flimsy. When you put the curtain across the window, maybe it causes the light to diffuse a little bit, but it doesn't really darken the room in any appreciable way. And then imagine that you put another curtain on top of that curtain and it's also translucent, but now you have the compounding effect of two curtains. So it's a little bit dimmer in the room, but you still you're still getting light in the room. Now imagine you do a third curtain like that. Also the same degree of uh translucent, but now the compounding effect. You have three of these curtains starting to get dark. And now let's say you add a fourth layer. And now effectively it's opaque. uh even though no no one curtain is on its own enough to block the light but the compounding effect of all those curtains blocks out the light. Okay, that metaphor that image can help you to understand what our experience is here in the physical world or the embodiment plane or the phenomenological universe. >> [sighs] >> Um the light is the light of truth, the light of oneness, the light, you know, there's only one true force, one true energy, and that is that is God. But what happens is there are systems of concealment, filters if you will, that are placed in front of that cause from our subjective experience uh to diminish the light. So we're getting less and less light. Now imagine for instance um there's a spiritual realm. It's inhabited by spiritual entities like angels and souls and they see a lot of godly light but there is some filter of the godly light. And the proof that there's filter of of the godly light is that they're having a subjective experience these souls and angels. Because if God's like weren't filtered at all, then these spiritual entities would be subsumed within the oneness. They would not have their own separate consciousness or experience. Um they wouldn't exist. Right? So the fact very the very fact that they exist means that there's some filter going on. But it's a very light filter uh because their experience of reality is one where the truth of the oneness is undeniable and they feel even their own existence as tenuous. They feel that they don't have autonomous separate selfhood. They they these souls and angels in this very high lofty spiritual realm they sense that the only absolute reality is is God's reality and that they are by contrast relative reality completely conditional and dependent on God's reality. Okay. So that's there's a there's a word for this this realm by the way. It's calledos the world of emanation and it's the highest of the worlds. And we should explain that the the the word that we're using for world, by the way, um the Hebrew word is spelled invaded mem. [clears throat] We pronounce it olam. Some pronounce it olam. But the etmological root, the threeletter etmological root is lammed which means concealment. Like in the word helm, which means concealment literally. So an ilam, a world is an is a helm is a concealment. Every world is another layer of concealment that allows you to see more creation and less creator. It's an inverse proportion. The more concealment then the more creation you see, the less creator you you perceive. Okay. Now, the reality is the sun is still shining just as bright. The fact that you're putting curtains on the window doesn't make the sun uh any less bright. But subjectively from your experience inside the room uh it feels that way. Okay. Now imagine you put another curtain on top of that curtain. Now the first curtain like we said is like this flimsy curtain and the second curtain maybe is also a flimsy curtain but now we're creating a compounding effect and it's getting darker and that and and that's the next world. There's a word for that. It's called Bria Habria. Um, and then you put another curtain that's called ilots. And the translations of these words are not that important without a very lengthy explanation of why each one has that name. But the main point is I want to get to the the end result. You put another curtain on there which is another or helm or concealment or world or system of reality and that's called ilamia. And now you have the effect that we call the embodiment plane the physical universe the the time space continuum. that experience that we relate to as embodied souls. And in fact, we can make the mistake of being so immersed in the experience that we think it's the only experience that we're having right now, which is untrue. We're simultaneously concurrently experiencing all of these layers. But obviously the embodiment one, its stimuli are very brash and loud and overwhelming. So that's the one that sort of occupies our our consciousness uh the most uh the most loudly. At any rate, here's the thing to understand that the experience of being in the physical world is an experience of being placed in front of a series or a system of compounding concealments that hide the truth. that there's nothing but the one and cause us to first of all identify ourselves as separateness and then everything around us as separateness which is untrue everything is really the one um remember I said that in the highest realm the filter is so flimsy that those entities Those souls and angels in the highest realm, they don't even think of themselves as like solid beings. Like they don't think of themselves as autonomous. Well, in the physical realm, the embodied soul can definitely be deliluded into thinking that I'm here just because I'm here. Nothing put me here. Nothing's currently putting me here, which is completely untrue. We're only here because God is creating us something from nothing at every single second, which is a concept that we could talk about another time at length. But the point is that is the inherent probably defining feature of the embodiment plane which is the feeling of autonomous existence. The feeling that I I'm here just because I'm here. But how do you come into existence? What do we mean come into existence? I just exist. You see in the in the spiritual realms existence created existence is rather like a shaft of light metaphorically. I don't mean actual photons but what I mean is like this. If you see a beam of light you will be able to trace it to the light source. There's no such thing as there's a shaft of light and I can't trace it to the light source. If there's a shaft of light, there is an uninterrupted flow to the the the light source. So the spiritual beings in the in the spiritual worlds, they look at their own existence and that and they see it sort of like this uninterrupted flow straight from the one. They understand that they're just emanations. That's why I told you the highest world atus is called because it means emanation. They know that they're emanations. They know they're just shafts of light beaming from the sun, so to speak. And again, I mean this metaphorically. I don't mean the literal sun. Um, but then imagine as opposed to like, you know, a shaft of light, think about like a physical object. a physical object, you know, like, you know, the cup of coffee. There's nothing traceable about it. You you where does it come from? What's what's it what's bringing it into being? Where's its uninterrupted lifeline to its source? You you don't see anything. You just see this independent object sort of on its own. Now, the reality is we know that can't be. There's no such thing as nothing creates itself and nothing maintains itself e even. But in the physical world, things look to be ontologically independent. It sounds like a fancy word. It's not such a fancy word. When you speak about these things, you're forced to use words like onlogically independent, which mean just basically means that it has its own existence. Now, I'm not claiming that it doesn't exist. It does exist. It just doesn't have its own existence. There's a difference, huge difference. Some will say, well, the whole physical world is nothing but a fantasy. It's it's an illusion. I'm not saying it's an illusion. It exists. I'm just saying there's a possible delusion [laughter] that we can have as we're experiencing it, which is to buy into the appearance of autonomy and to think that that's really all it is. When really the experience that we have in the phenomenological universe in the embodiment plane is the end result of a series of compounding uh realities. one on top of the other. And it's important for us to note that [clears throat] because uh although yes, as long as we are embodied souls, our mission is here in the physical world. That's true. That's that's that's our calling is to do to do real physical things, acts of goodness and kindness in the physical world with our bodies. We're we're not here in order to sit on a mountaintop and to meditate about the the the the the great truths of of uh existence. That's not that's not the point of life. The point of life as an embodied soul is physical uh acts um primarily acts of goodness and kindness. So that's true. However, at the same time, we do need to be cognizant of the fact that this physical realm is not all that's happening. There's a famous story that the sixth lab who uh he lived in Russia during the the Soviet period and he was being interrogated by the communists and they were very frustrated with him because they were very adept at psychological warfare and making people afraid and he was not showing any fear. And so they they threatened him with a weapon, with a gun, with a revolver. And they said, "This little toy has ways of making people talk." And the sixth reb toy is effective on people who have many gods in one world. But I have one god and two worlds. Okay. What does that mean? It's very deep. First of all, many [clears throat] gods in one world basically means the materialist outlook. Now, you're going to say the materialist is an atheist. He has no gods. Well, it's not really true. Nobody has no gods. [laughter] Like Bob Dylan said, you got to serve somebody. You know, you can say you don't uh worship God, but uh then then what what is it that you do worship? What is it? What power do you feel um has sway over you? Whether you feel you can influence that power or you don't feel you can influence that power. But the materialist actually lives in a world where he has many gods. He's trying to get his ducks in a row and trying to manage all types of things that are coming up in his life, whether it's people or whether it's governments or forces of nature. But he's he's got many gods and he's got one world because he just has the material plane. But what does [clears throat] it mean that I have one god and many worlds or two worlds? He said um he means that first of all I only serve one authority, one god. But two worlds means like this. He didn't mean he did not mean listen to me clearly. He did not mean, "I don't care if you shoot me because I'll go to heaven." That's not what he meant. That's not what he meant. That's not what he meant. What he meant was, and how do I know that's not what he meant? Not on my own. I know it because his son-in-law, who was his successor, who was the seventh Reb, told this story and carefully unpacked it for us. And they had a very close relationship. And possibly this is even something that the sixth even told the seventhba or at the very least the seventh was able to discern this. And the meaning of it is like this. The sixth reba was being interrogated. He was being held in a in a prison. Seemingly he was at the mercy of his capttors. They were in control. They were representing a superpower and he was just, you know, a rabbi. What he was saying is the reality is not as [clears throat] simple as it may appear to you if you are a materialist. If you're a materialist, you're looking at the tip of the iceberg and you're just seeing the way the physical like the chess board is laid out. You know, they talk about like I don't know. I think they started I think the [clears throat] expression started four-dimensional chess and then it became like tangent dimensional chess and now like the memes are like this guy's [clears throat] playing 20 dimensional I don't even know if people know what 20 dimensions even is I don't think they know what four dimensions is but five dimen whatever that so but but literally like the time space continuum actually that is four dimensions but [snorts] think about you're looking at a chessboard but you're not taking into account that there are dimensions beyond the physical realm. So the way the board is laid out, if you're just looking at it from that perspective, you're not seeing the whole game. So the sixb was saying like this, there are two worlds. I've got two worlds. There's much more to this than what you're seeing. There's a much bigger picture. And you know, maybe I'm not your captor. Maybe I'm not at your mercy. Maybe you better be nice to me. You [laughter] know, maybe I'm serving God over here and God's going to get his way. You know, sooner or later, God's going to get his way over here. So, like, take it easy. All right? Like, you know, a little perspective. And this is the lesson for all of us that as we go through life, we need to appreciate even if we can't perceive spiritual realms. And you know who among us can really claim to consistently perceive spiritual realms? Sometimes we have a hint of it. Sometimes the soul is more awakened and we have a a fleeting moment of inspiration or intuition, you know. But I believe it or not, I'm a very practical guy. I know you're looking at me, oh big white beard and you know the rabbi and you think I'm I'm a mystic. I'm not a mystic. Okay? I learned mysticism. I'm not a mystic. Try to be a practical guy. So, it's not like I know the goings on of the spiritual realms. I don't claim that. And and frankly, you know, I I'm pretty skeptical of people who do claim to have such knowledge. But what I do know is not what's going on in the spiritual realms, but I know that something is going on in the spiritual realms. And I know that whatever we're experiencing is not the whole picture. It is decidedly a very small sliver of the complete reality and that therefore we need to align ourselves with a higher truth and that means by our belief in God and our reliance upon God and by doing the will of God and especially acts of goodness and kindness and that whatever things appear to be in the natural realm. Yeah. Okay. So, we're not supposed to rely on miracles. So, we should do things in a way that's responsible according to the natural realm. So, I'm not telling you to be reckless, but at the same time, I'm telling you, don't live in fear. Don't be intimidated by the physical realm. Realize, have a more expansive view, I guess, is what I'm saying. And realize that there's a lot more to reality than what we see.