Everything we sense is internal. No one else senses what an individual senses, and if someone senses something and tells another about it, which the other person cannot adequately relate to as part of their feelings, they then do not know what they are talking about.
Whatever is not inside the person is thus nonexistent. Therefore, happiness is internal, and it appears when something we truly aspire for becomes fulfilled.
Such a feeling can be called “happiness.” However, there are a range of levels between what we suffer from and what makes us happy. It turns out that the greatest happiness appears when we feel ourselves coming closer to balance with nature, similar to how a child yearns for his or her mother. That is when we feel happiness.
Happiness is a strong desire for a fulfillment that we always wanted to materialize, but we had already lost hope. Then, the positive force of nature—the force of bestowal, love and connection called “the Creator”—appears. It utters “Where have you been? I have been looking for you!” And the person wants to say: “I am the one who has been looking for You! Not me—but You, where have You been?” That is how they come together, in a simple fashion, without any hesitation or words.
That is happiness. However, it is not the kind of fusion that occurs in our world, when two bodies cling to each other while retaining their own space and individual sensations. Here we have no bodies, but a reciprocal sensation of mutual diffusion. As a result, a certain state of being emerges.
In terms of our sense of self, we then want it to melt away. We feel absolutely no need for it. However, if the feeling of oneself disappears, then the feeling of the other will also disappear. That is why it is designed such that the self needs to exist.
In the language of Kabbalah, it is described as follows: the Aviut, i.e. the “thickness” of the ego, does not disappear. Moreover, as the ego keeps increasing, we can acquire the ability to harmonize it with the quality of bestowal. As a result, the ego, the hatred, becomes greater, and love also increases. In our linear world, we do not understand how it works. That is how it plays out in the spiritual realm. And such hatred and love increase to a state of infinity, where we feel infinity. There is then no limit to such happiness, but it has to be felt, otherwise it is meaningless. However, there is a very long path ahead of us before we reach such a sensation.
Based on the video “Is Happiness Internal or External?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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